


Perfect World

by secooper87



Series: The Child of Balime [49]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms
Genre: Action/Adventure, Crossover, F/M, Romance, Slavery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-29
Updated: 2015-02-04
Packaged: 2018-02-27 09:13:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 28
Words: 51,258
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2687282
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/secooper87/pseuds/secooper87
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On a planet where humanoids are kept as pets, David Walter Korjensky III discovers he's fallen in love.  But it requires a sacrifice.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

"…uncharted planet," David Walter Korjensky III reported, into his thumb-embedded log recorder. He leaned back in his chair, staring at the planet looming ahead of him. "Class 5 civilization, looks like. Technology, but no space travel." He idly checked the monitors in front of him. "Lots of radio waves and transmissions. Yeah. Must have all sorts of tech."

He thumbed through some scanners on the ship. Rambling off the stats and atmospheric readings, without really thinking about them.

He hated this job.

Yep. Dave had been a soldier. One of the Pachoran Slave Cluster, a cold-blooded killer sought after by every self-respecting chevauchée group around.

Then he'd met a girl.

And now… as a direct result… here he was. No chevauchée group. No reputation. Just stuck working as a glorified cartographer.

He flipped some more switches. "Starting a descent pattern," he reported. "Let's see what this planet has waiting for us." Then turned off his thumb-corder.

Stared out the front window of his cheap-ass, second-hand explorer ship.

"Let's 'check out the local art and culture'," he muttered. Sighed. "As if I care."

* * *

There were, of course, fancy gadgets you could buy, back on Earth, to help you blend in with the natives on these Class 5 planets.

But Dave could never afford anything that flashy.

So he did what he always did; resorted to his normal stealth-creep.

Dave pressed the thumb-corder against his larynx, so it could pick up the vibrations, and he wouldn't have to talk out-loud. As he took notes on everything he found.

"Native inhabitants are basically large lizards," he reported into the thumb-corder. "Seven foot high, on average. Get back to you later on the physiological minutia, when I got more details."

He snuck out towards the center of the town.

"There are human-looking life-forms around, too," Dave continued. His eyes skimming the crowd. "But they're all in serving positions. Some chained up on leashes, like dogs. None of them are talking — bad sign." He gave a dry chuckle. "If I see the Statue of Liberty embedded in the sand, somewhere, I'll be sure to make the appropriate remarks."

Then chided himself for making a joke that probably no one would get.

Dave really did have far too much spare time on his hands, these days. Resorting to watching old movies, during transit!

He hated this job.

"Looks like the lizards are the ones with all the high-tech," Dave continued, sneaking off down another side-street. He took the lid off a garbage can, and peered inside. "Dietary preferences mainly centered around the lizards, too, looks like. I'll get a chemical breakdown, when I make it back to my ship." He scooped up a sample of the thrown-out food, then tucked it away. And went onwards, with his exploration.

Towards the next big street.

"Main mode of transport doesn't seem to be the car, here," Dave recorded. Stepping forwards, his eyes drifting over the vehicles cruising down the street. "They're more like… hopper cars. Like if a frog mated with a horse-drawn carriage. Internal combustion is definitely in, but more—"

Dave paused, just beside the street.

Frowned, as a cluster of lizard-people swept by. Their elaborate outfits flowing in the breeze with every step.

But that wasn't the weirdest thing.

"Okay, on second thought," Dave vocalized to the thumb-corder, "maybe my Planet of the Apes joke was more well-founded than it seemed. Despite having no association with Earth Empire, and our never having encountered this planet before… everyone here is speaking English."

And they were.

_Everyone._

Since Dave had started this job, he'd grown used to wandering around alien planets and not understanding a word anyone was saying. They were uncharted worlds, on the edge of the Empire — no translator patch would be able to understand them, not yet. But… for some reason, on this planet… he could understand everyone. Perfectly.

He started analyzing the human-looking creatures the lizards kept as pets.

"Maybe those pets _are_ real humans, after all," he guessed. "Could be this was a failed colony everyone forgot about, overrun by the indigenous population. Or… one settled by slavers who attacked a distant Earth colony, and shipped the survivors here."

He crept forwards, towards a cluster of human-looking people, nearby.

"I'm going to try to talk to some of them," Dave decided. Not standard protocol, he knew, but… if they were slaves shipped from some other colony… he wasn't just leaving them here with these alien bastards. Not for a second. "See if they can tell me where they're from. I'll try to—"

Dave stopped.

Speech leaving him in an instant, as his eyes lingered past the crowd he'd been about to approach.

And onto the group of lizard-women, just ahead. Their clothing clearly upper-class, frilly and lacy with little solar amplifiers stitched in, to help them absorb the sunlight. They were chatting as if they didn't care in the slightest, conversing in far-too-loud voices about parties and social niceties and other things Dave didn't give a damn about.

But each of them held a leash. Each leash lead to a human-looking figure they kept as a pet.

And one of those figures… Dave recognized.

Her blond hair waving in the wind. Her brown eyes large and sparkling. Her face soft and her cheeks dotted with freckles.

Dave would know that face anywhere.

He turned off the thumb-corder, abandoned his mission and his job and any stealth he might have had on his side.

Instead, he burst into the street, racing over fast as he could and grabbing Seo by the arm — to yank her away from these monsters. Whoever the hell these lizards were, Dave swore he'd…!

Seo spun around, to look at him.

Blankly.

Like she didn't have a clue who he was or what he was doing.

Butchers. They'd done something to her! Dave tugged Seo even further away, whipping out his gun and pointing it directly at the society-lizards around him.

They all raised their hands in the air — although their faces were all just as impassive as they'd been before. Like none of this even mattered to them.

Except…

A gust of shivering air burst upon Dave.

They were nervous. Perhaps a little scared.

"It's… an escapee from Vedhor, isn't it?" said one of the lizards, swishing her tail behind her. "I'd heard they'd been having trouble like this, recently."

The lizard woman who'd been holding Seo captive stepped forwards, slowly. "Just let Sunshine go," she said. Locking eyes with him, and Dave could feel a blaze of heat and command in that gaze. "Now."

Dave frowned.

What the hell was wrong with these lizards?! He was pointing a high-tech alien blaster at them, and they were just _nervous_?! Not terrified? Were they stupid, or…?

Or… was there something Dave, in the heat of the moment… had missed?

He swung around, to discover himself surrounded — on all sides — by advancing hoards of the humanoid servants. Their faces just as blank and empty as Seo's. Their eyes just as vacant. Dave managed to roll himself and Seo out of the way, as a group of humanoids threw themselves at him.

He used his own body as a shield for Seo, as he got back to his feet, swung around.  
And started firing into the advancing crowd.

The humanoids didn't even cry out in pain, as they were hit. Just crumpled in on themselves, hitting the pavement hard.

"Dunno what they did to you, Seo," Dave muttered, clutching her to him, a little tighter. "But you're safe, now. I'll protect you."

"What do we have, here?" came a voice from behind him.

Dave turned, to discover a tall, uniformed lizard man, towering over him.

Carrying a nasty, but primitive, gun.

"A talker?" said the lizard man. "Never seen a talker, before." Another lizard man emerged, behind him, carrying a muzzle. "But I guess I'll leave that for the Vedhor scientists to figure out."

Dave raised up his gun and shot the primitive weapon out of the lizard's hands. Then turned to the lizard with the muzzle, steadying the gun…

And yelped, as he found himself knocked off-balance by Seo.

Who had stumbled — right into him — twisting around his upper body so that his shot glanced into a nearby tree, and he nearly fell to the ground.

Letting her go.

"Sunshine," called out the lizard woman who'd been holding Seo's leash. "Come back here, girl!" She reached down into a satchel, and brought out something that looked like candy. Waved it. "I've got a treat for you!"

Seo looked up.

Eyes fixed on the treat.

And, in a flash, raced back to the lizard-woman who'd called for her. Reaching out for the candy.

Dave, on the pavement, tried to fire, again — but found his gun missing. Reached for his second gun… but it was missing, too. By that time, the blank-faced humanoids were already swarming on top of him, tackling him to the ground.

And the uniformed lizard men were muzzling him.

"Seo!" Dave tried to shout.

But the muzzle drowned out all noise.

Seo frowned a little, as she snuck a peek back at him. But the lizard-woman who'd been feeding Seo the candy grabbed Seo by her collar, and yanked her away from Dave.

Hard.

"Mammalian hormones," the lizard-woman said to her friends, as she led Seo away. "I don't understand them. But my little Sunshine attracts troublemakers like nobody's business." She took out something vaguely resembling a rolled-up newspaper, and then smacked Seo over the head with it. "Bad girl! Stop chasing men!"

"You should get her neutered," one of the lizard women nearby offered. "Or next thing you know, she'll wind up pregnant."

The lizard-woman swished her tail. "That's our next stop, actually."

Dave struggled to get free. Just seeing Seo abused like this — he'd break all their necks with his bare hands, if he had to. He'd…!

But he didn't have the chance.

As the lizard-men in uniforms wrestled him into a van. Chattering at him in a menacing manner about "you damn strays" and "feral escapees" and "get you back to Vedhor where you belong" and a whole bunch of other stuff Dave didn't catch.

He never took his eyes off Seo.

Not even as they locked him in their van and hopped off with him.

Why hadn't Seo recognized him? What had they done to her? Dave didn't care. To hell with his career, his opportunities, his safety, his sanity. First chance he got, he was breaking out of here.

And rescuing her.


	2. Chapter 2

Sunshine turned, as the van hopped down the street and out of sight.

Her large brown eyes lingering on it.

"You're such a softy, Madgella," said one of her owner's friends, grabbing up the rolled-up-parsayit that looked like a newspaper. "You should hit her like this!"

Thwack!

Sunshine stumbled back, a look of surprise covering her freckled face, pain throbbing through her at the unexpectedly vicious smack. She spun around and opened her mouth, but no words came out. Her eyes going sad.

Madgella grabbed the parsayit from her friend. "You might have hurt her, Pwouia!" Then rushed back to Sunshine, cradling her and petting her head.

Sunshine tried to glance back at the spot where the van had been, once more.

But it was long out of sight.

"You have no sense of discipline," mumbled one of Madgella's friends.

"You should trade this one in," said another one. Yanking her own pet forwards. "Mine does cooking, cleaning, massage, and can defend me against intruders in the night. Yours is worthless."

"And defective," said the first friend. "Two hearts? Talk about shoddy merchandise. You'd never find that in the Vedhor pets."

"Thank you for your input," Madgella replied. "It's been noted." She stood up straight and tall. Gesturing for Sunshine to walk in front of her. "Now, if you're done degrading my worldly goods, I've got an appointment to keep."

And, with no further adieu, Madgella and Sunshine walked off down the street.

It was only a little bit longer, before they reached the vet. Madgella holding sweet little Sunshine in her arms, in the waiting room.

"Who's Madgella's favorite little Sunshine?" said Madgella. Feeding the pet a treat. A brown-colored sweetened bean seemed to make her pet extremely happy, and even though it was rare, Madgella always bought more of it. "You are. Yes, you are! Yes, you are!"

"Madgella and Sunshine?" came the voice of the vet.

Madgella stood up, but the vet stopped her. Extended a hand out, for the leash.

"You know the rules," said the vet. "Pets only past this point."

Madgella paused. Then handed Sunshine over.

"Just remember — I still have money, Dr. Kryvoyar," said Madgella. "If I learn you've made my sweet little Sunshine suffer — I'll ruin you. In seconds."

"Gotcha," said the vet.

Sunshine didn't seem even remotely aware of where she was, or what she was heading into, though. Far from cowering away, Sunshine was practically on her feet and dragging the vet off, before he had a chance to get a firm hold on her.

"Whoa, there!" said the vet. "Easy up. Sunshine."

Sunshine glanced back.

Then, the moment the vet got a good hold on the leash, sprinted off, again. Dragging the vet behind her, needing him to grab her by the shoulders and lead her into the correct room for the procedure, so she'd actually wind up in the correct place.

Madgella dropped down into a seat in the waiting room.

"Sunshine, Sunshine," she said. "I guess you haven't picked up the meaning of the word 'neutered', yet."

* * *

If Sunshine heard Madgella's words, she didn't give any indication. She threw herself into the vet's operation room, practically dragging the vet inside, after her.

Then slammed the door.

Threw the vet into the room, so he nearly slid across the floor. And she stood there. Back against the door. Eyes fixed on the vet.

"Jack," said Seo. "We've got a problem."

The reptile vet pressed something on his wrist. And the holo-guise fell away, revealing the grinning face of Jack Harkness, underneath.

"I'll say," he agreed. "Never seen any pet so enthusiastic to get neutered."

Seo sighed. Then pushed herself away from the door, looking very clearly irritated.

Jack hesitated. "You… found something?"

"Some statistics and raw data," Seo replied. Flipping him a small, metallic disk, which he fitted into his VM on his wrist and activated. "But still nothing we can use. You've gotta find out where Vedhor is, Jack — or I'll never get anywhere."

"Hey, I'm working on it," Jack replied, bringing up the holographic readout. "It's a bit hard to do that _and_ rescue all those pets the stray-catcher keeps picking up. Primitive this planet may be, but they've got killer computer security."

He paused.

His eyes skimming the holographic readout.

Then he sighed, a grim look on his face, as he put the metallic disk away. "Guess I kind of expected that." He shook his head. "And they wonder why the humans are rebelling!"

"But that's not why we need to talk." Seo jumped up onto the surgery table that Jack had installed — purely for show. "Someone I know just turned up, here. Almost blew my whole cover."

She reached up her sleeve.

Then tossed Jack two blasters — which he caught, expertly.

He examined them. "Standard Earth-issue. Tech way too advanced for this civilization." He glanced up at Seo. Noticing the blush she was trying to hide. "Got yourself an admirer?"

Seo looked away.

Embarrassed.

"Can you… just… rescue him from the stray-catcher?" Seo muttered. She tucked some hair behind her ears. "Before they notice he isn't native."

Jack leaned back against the countertop. "You're the boss!"

* * *

The stray-catcher, Ovarti, gave a huff, as Dr. Kryvoyar entered his office. "If it isn't the most crooked vet in town, back again," he muttered.

Dr. Kryvoyar winked. "Crooked or straight — anything that gets you going, doesn't matter to me!"

He stopped along the edge of the room, just out of the sharpest rays of the sun that shone through the roof. Ovarti always wondered why he lingered in shadows. Instead of basking in the sun's warmth.

"Nice new fedorplo!" Kryvoyar whistled. Pointing at the solar amplifying accessory stitched into Ovarti's garments. "Looks good on you." Then, in a quieter voice, "Bet it'd look better _off_ you."

It had taken Ovarti some time to get used to Kryvoyar — the crooked vet who always said things that suggested he wanted to get you out of your clothes, but never actually followed the pick-up lines through with any _emotion_.

Just… occasional facial distortions.

A mental illness, no doubt. Perhaps Kryvoyar didn't know _how_ to emote. Spent his youth as one of those miserable loners who burned insects under a magnifying glass — and now, got his kicks torturing the mammals.

"I'm guessing you want the usual," he said, grabbing up keys and ushering the vet down towards the basement. Where the sun never shone, and the mammals were kept — in their cages and their filth. "We've got a bet going on. What you're doing with all of the ones you purchase. Berto thinks you're performing some kind of twisted surgery. I'm thinking… something sexual?"

Kryvoyar opened his mouth to speak.

Clearly not catching that this was rhetorical.

Ovarti, frustrated, spelled it out for him. "I don't actually want you to answer that question. I'd be happier not knowing." He unlocked the basement door, and opened it for Kryvoyar. "The strays caught this week." He walked over to four, in the corner, who'd been separated from the others. "As usual, your… off-the-books mammals." He paused, by the cages. Holding out his hand. "Our thanks for your magnanimous… contribution."

Kryvoyar handed over his normal bribe.

And… a little extra.

Ovarti flipped through the money. "Very generous, sir, but you're not getting any more strays," he warned. "If we set aside any more mammals for you, the guys at Vedhor will get suspicious."

"Hey, they can't blame you if some stuff gets misplaced," Kryvoyar said. Pointing to the muzzled pet, on the far side of the room. "I mean, you know underlings. Always screwing things up and losing the stock."

Ovarti looked where Kryvoyar was pointing.

And nearly fell over.

"The blond-furred?" said Ovarti. "You've gotta be joking. That one's a talker; Vedhor will pay a fortune for it."

Kryvoyar flipped out some more money.

And handed it over.

"And it's dangerous," Ovarti continued. "Probably should be scheduled for termination. After all, you don't just—"

Kryvoyar slipped him another hundred.

"Very good, Dr. Kryvoyar," said Ovarti. Pocketing the money. "It seems there has, indeed, been an accident with our underlings losing stock. I'll look into it."

"Yeah, those interns, huh?" said Kryvoyar, kneeling down by the cage containing the blond-furred mammal, to scrutinize it more closely. "Bet they screw up the coffee, too."

"What's an… 'intern'?" said Ovarti.

Kryvoyar ignored him.

Instead, kept surveying his latest purchase. "Good cheek bones," Kryvoyar said, eyes fixed on the blond-furred mammal. "Nice muscles. Plus — Earth Central, judging from the uniform. Gotta love a man in uniform." His voice lowered to a whisper. "She's got good taste."

Ovarti didn't know what this 'Earth' was, but since it came from Dr. Kryvoyar, he guessed it was something sexual.

And didn't want to know the rest.

"I'll just step out to… adjust… the inventory," said Ovarti. "If you'll give me a minute."

And secured the door behind him.

They waited a few seconds, after Ovarti left the cage area, before Kryvoyar poked at something on his wrist, and the muzzle fell off Dave's head. Dave kept wary eyes fixed on Dr. Kryvoyar.

"You're dead meat," Dave growled. "You know that?"

"Good looking, and with a spirit to match!" said the man, with a laugh. He touched his wrist, again — and the lizard-disguise flickered, just for long enough that Dave could see past the disguise, and to the human being beneath. "Captain Jack Harkness." He re-engaged his disguise, almost immediately.

Dave whistled at the tech.

Nice.

Rich-guy stuff.

Whoever this Captain Harkness was, looked like he'd staked first claim, here. And had more than enough money to make that claim stick.

"You got here first, huh?" Dave shook his head. "Fine. You survey the planet. Doesn't matter to me. Just let me grab this girl I know, kill the bastards who hurt her, and I'll let you take over—"

"Sorry, gorgeous," said Jack. "But I think you and I need to talk."


	3. Chapter 3

Dave soon found himself sitting in the middle of an alien-esque vet station, in one of the exam rooms, with little human-shaped icons on the snacks and treats, and some even poured into a dog-bowl, in the corner.

Harkness came in, disguise-free.

Shut the door.

"So _you're_ David Walter Korjensky III?" He looked Dave up and down, approvingly. "Heard a lot about you, but I never thought you'd be a hottie." He grinned. "She's _definitely_ got good taste."

"You know Seo?" Dave pressed. Then, his heart racing, added, "You two aren't…?"

"No," Jack put in, quickly. "Oh, no. Her father would kill me." He paused. "And if you think you're a good-looking hero, you should meet _him_. Every face is better than the last!"

"Every…?" Dave raised up his hand. "What the hell are you…?!"

"Hey, a full ten fingers," said Jack, pointing at Dave's hand. His face contemplative. "Go figure."

Dave paused.

Staring.

Then decided he didn't have any idea what Harkness was talking about. And really didn't care.

"I don't have time for crazy-talk," Dave insisted, jumping to his feet and grabbing back the guns that had been taken from him. "I've got to rescue Seo. And shoot those damn bastards who hurt her right between their eyes, before—"

"Hey, hey, let's not get hasty, here," Jack cut in. He tucked his thumbs under his suspender straps. "Trust me, I know Seo pretty well. And shooting people isn't the way into her hearts."

Dave rounded on Jack, menacingly. "She's being treated like a pet! Like a slave! And I don't care who you are or what you say… I will _never_ let her be treated like—"

"Yep, and Seo has basically the same disgust towards institutionalized slavery as you do," said Jack. "Which is why I wound up selling her to Madgella. And why you saw her as a pet, today."

Dave bristled. " _You_ …!"

"Look, Seo's the boss, here — I'm just tagging along for the ride." Jack sat down beside Dave. "Trust me, this was all _her_ idea. Not mine. And if you 'rescue' her, you'll be undoing everything she's done so far."

"Undoing… everything…?" Dave shook his head. "What the hell are you talking…?!"

"Long story short — Seo and I got here about a month ago," Jack cut in. "We saw all the pets, and… well, you know how Seo gets about injustice. One glance at this place and she knew — she had to set this whole thing right. So she devised a plan to get herself undercover as a pet, and take the system down from the inside." He laughed. "Firecracker!"

Dave's eyes went dark. "That doesn't explain Seo's blank stare."

Jack crossed his arms. "Around the stray-catchers? Or anyone else in a position of authority? You better believe it does." He shrugged. "She's not stupid. If she was her normal, bubbly self around the authorities — she'd get caught in an instant."

Dave hesitated… just a little.

"It's all an act," Jack reassured him. "Me. Her. Being a 'pet'. The blank stare, when authorities are around. All of it!" Jack jumped to his feet, unlocking a drawer on the far end of the room. "Madgella's husband used to be an influential politician, but he was assassinated two months ago." He took out a small, round metal disk, no bigger than his thumbnail, and tossed it to Dave. "Apparently, Madgel held some controversial views regarding the 'treatment of mammalian life forms'."

"Madgel… and Madgella?" said Dave, turning the disk over in his hands, wondering what the hell to do with it.

"Yeah, it's a thing on this planet," Jack said. "You marry, you change your first name. Both of you. Madgel and Madgella. Callea and Callel. That kind of thing."

Dave nodded, slowly.

Jack shrugged. "Anyways. Seo figured that chez-Madgella would still be covered with letters and useful information about the pets. So she had me get into a disguise and sell her off to Madgella as a 'rare-breed pet'."

"Because she's half-alien," Dave muttered. "Of course."

"My point is… Seo's fine," Jack assured Dave. "Probably bored out of her mind, most of the time, but… Madgella's not a bad owner, as they go. And definitely isn't anything Seo can't handle. She's not in need of a rescue."

Dave didn't answer.

Just stared down at the floor. Much preferring his own shoot-the-hell-out-of-everyone strategy to this… stealth approach.

Dave took a long, deep breath.

Then got up, off the chair. "Well, if she isn't in any danger… guess I better just get on with my job," he muttered. Tossed back the metal disk. "Exploring. Surveying the local art and culture. All that cartography stuff."

"Not… chevauchéeing?" Jack asked.

"Not anymore," Dave replied, heading out the door.

He never even said goodbye, as he left the building.

Jack hooked his thumbs under his suspenders. "David Walter Korjensky III," he reflected. "With ten fingers." He shrugged. "You're not at all like I thought you'd be, from history lessons."

* * *

It took Dave a while to find the house.

A mansion, covered in one-way glass panels through which the sun could shine. Almost like an elaborate green-house… or like the ship Dave had seen Seo get into, last time.

He knelt down, by the side of the house. The moons glowing in the night sky. As he rapped on one of the basement windows, down there.

No answer.

He rapped harder.

The window opened, a little. Seo poking her head out, and then spotting him. An annoyed look settling across her features. "It's you."

"Be straight with me," Dave said. "Are they hurting you, here?"

"I'll be hurting you, pretty soon, if you don't get out of here!" Seo hissed. She poked her head out, a little more, looking around. Her voice a whisper. "There are security measures here like you wouldn't believe! Do you know what'd happen if anyone _found_ you?"

"It's a primitive planet," Dave replied, with a shrug. "Anything they throw at me… I can do worse."

Seo sighed.

"Wait a sec," she said, and retreated back inside. "And don't kill anyone!"

A few minutes later, Seo reappeared, outside the house, creeping around as if afraid someone might spot her.

Her eyes constantly darting from side to side. "There was an assassination here, only two months ago," Seo said, taking Dave by the hand and hoisting him to his feet. "You don't know how much of a pain it is to override the new security systems Madgella's installed."

Dave examined her more carefully.

She didn't seem to be hurt or injured. Nothing broken or bleeding or scarred. In fact, she seemed just as in-control and clever as the day he'd met her.

Maybe more-so.

"Now, get in!" Seo said, dragging him after her. "If you're planning on sticking around this planet to defend my honor, I'll have to see what I can cobble together for you."

* * *

He watched her, as she sat bent over a desk. Disassembling little bits of tech and reassembling bits of them together as if she knew exactly what she was doing. Only occasionally making the whole thing spark, and having to shake out her fingers.

"Captain Harkness wasn't lying, was he?" said Dave. "You're in control, here."

"You've only seen a little smidge of this society," Seo replied, without looking away from her work. She grabbed for another device, tore it open. "I've been here a month. And every day, I'm finding out just how bad it really is." A spark, and Seo shook out her fingers. "How's Nestene-Me?"

Dave blinked.

Caught off-guard by the change in topic.

"She's… fine," he replied. "Set up a chocolate emporium theme park, run by the only peaceful, chocolate-adoring Autons in the universe. Plus, she gets kicks out of using her manipulation of plastic to play jokes on the guests."

Seo laughed. "Sounds like me."

"Think she's growing restless, though," Dave said. "There've been rumors that she's going to close the emporium and launch herself back into space. Apparently, she isn't one for settling down and living the quiet life."

Another spark, and another hiss from Seo.

"And you?" Dave said, in a soft voice.

Seo looked up. "Me?"

"You're wandering around rescuing planets with a handsome so-called 'Captain'," said Dave, "who seems to have a thing for your dad?"

Seo cursed beneath her breath. "Jack!"

"What is he? Star-liner captain?" Dave guessed. "He looked the luxury cruise type. They're always overly-friendly, if you know what I mean."

"It's… complicated," Seo said, finishing up her device. "He's a close friend of my parents. He's a bit like… family, I guess." She jumped up from her seat. She fiddled with something on her device, then gave an approving nod, and fastened it to Dave's belt. "There."

She flicked a switch.

And a hard-shell holo-projection of a lizard popped up around Dave. Almost like wearing a costume. He tried moving his arms and legs, and the holo-projection moved with him.

"Perfect," Seo said. She stepped back, admiring her work. "Think I get better at this every time." She tucked some hair behind her ears. "Just remember not to outwardly emote, and you'll be fine."

Dave shut the projection off.

Looked deep into her eyes. The two of them just staring at one another, moonlight shining down on them through glass ceiling panels.

Then Seo turned away, her cheeks a little red.

"Now, that's you done," she said, heading back to her desk. "How many other of these 'chevauchéers' do you have with you, this time? And — don't think you lot can raid and pillage and plunder, because that's not happening, not while I'm around! If I give your chums these disguises, they're only allowed to—"

"Just me," said Dave. "And I'm not a chevauchéer, anymore."

Seo paused.

Looked back up at him.

"Timmo got poached by a better group," said Dave. "So… I'm back to square one. Doing exploratory cartography missions, on the outskirts of known space, and surveying 'the local art and culture'."

"Cartography?" Seo asked.

Dave raised up his thumb. Enabled playback.

"Native inhabitants are basically large lizards," his voice crackled back through the air. "Seven foot high, on average. Get back to you later on the physiological minutia, when I got more details. There are human-looking life-forms around, too. But they're all—"

He shut it off.

"You're an explorer!" said Seo. "Trying to work out the mysteries of the universe and introduce races to humanity in a peaceful way! Oh, that's brilliant!"

Dave hesitated.

Then planted a smile on his face. "Yes. That's… what I do."

Seo grabbed him up into a tight hug, and Dave made a mental note to tell her more stuff about peace and friendship and happiness in the future. He was starting to see the perks.

"See? I told you," Seo continued, drawing out of the hug. "If you just trust people and be nice, you can get out of the war business and start really making a difference! An explorer! That's a great job."

Dave decided the best thing he could do here was change the subject.

Fast.

"The people here don't emote?" Dave asked. He thought back to all the lizard people he'd encountered so far. And shook his head. "The people I've met so far have all been emoting."

Seo frowned.

Then laughed.

"You can pick it up!" she cried. "Oh, this should be easy, then. I can only pick it up when I concentrate; Jack doesn't catch it at all — which is odd, because he's technically got more practice at telepathy than you do."

It took Dave a while to realize what Seo was talking about.

"I wonder why," Seo continued. Her brow furrowing in animated curiosity. "Must mean _something_."

"Their emotions are… telepathic?" Dave asked. Now that he thought about it, while he could sense emotions from them, none of the lizard people he'd met so far had ever emoted using facial expressions.

Interesting…

He should put that on his thumb-corder.

"And linked to the planet — or that's my current theory," Seo replied. She shrugged. "Makes sense. What with the weather."

…weather?

"The humans here all seem to pick up on the lizards' emotions, though," Seo offered. "Don't ask me how."

"You mean the human _oids_ ," Dave corrected.

Seo shook her head. "No. The humans. They may be a bit different in terms of DNA and internal makeup, but their genetic markers are definitely Earth origin."

Dave stared. "But that doesn't…"

"…make sense, I know." Seo sighed, leaning back against the desk and crossing her arms. "Jack and I have all sorts of theories. Failed space colony. Cloning based on a crashed human ship. Jack thought they might be the last human refugees from some planet he knew of named Mondas." She frowned especially hard at that last one. "He wouldn't explain that one."

Dave nodded, slowly.

"But until I manage to find a way into Vedhor," said Seo, "all we've got are guesses."

"Vedhor?"

Something unfathomably dark crept into Seo's eyes.

She turned away from him.

"A subject for a later time," she muttered. Staring down at the papers she'd been sorting on the desk. She pushed one away, in disgust. "A much later time."


	4. Chapter 4

Madgella still remembered when mornings were bright and cheery, with smells of breakfast wafting through the house and her husband by her side.

She remembered it in a haze, now.

It felt like another life to her.

Madgella woke up, this morning — as she did every morning — to a dull gray, cloudy sky. She looked over to the far side of the rock, and found it empty.

Not even the scent of him left.

And Madgella — as she did every day — turned away from the empty side of the rock. Letting herself sag against her own side, eyes staring ahead at nothing.

Why bother getting up?

Life had no point, anymore. It was senseless, violent, and… meaningless.

Then the door to her room opened. And Sunshine stepped in, bounce in her step and eyes twinkling, a tray of breakfast in her arms. She bore her teeth and raised the side of her lips in that peculiar way she always did when she wanted to be friendly.

"Sunshine," Madgella said, uncurling herself from the rock.

And she _felt_ like sunshine. This warm-bodied mammal who was always ready and waiting for Madgella, every single day. She was so vibrant — her mind filled with wind and storms and sunshine and gentle breezes — it was as if she radiated it to those around her.

Sunshine set down the tray on the rock.

Then put a gentle, comforting hand on Madgella's cold skin — warming it.

Outside the house, the first hints of sun crept through the clouds.

Madgella turned to her breakfast, and tried — as she did every morning — to eat it. With little success. Sunshine had mashed up the flyciaxes in a great big mess, complete with wings and legs and everything. It tasted revolting.

"No, no, you messed it up again," Madgella said, making sure to project her annoyance. She pointed at the mess. "You're supposed to carve it up before you mash it, then cook—"

She stopped.

As she realized… if Sunshine, smart as she was, hadn't figured it out by now — she never would.

"All right, I'd better go out for breakfast," Madgella surrendered. She got up from her rock, as Sunshine hurried to help her dress.

And while it was difficult to pick up emotional states from this strange creature who used her face as if it were an easel on which she could paint how she felt… Madgella was finally able to recognize the expression that Sunshine wore, right now.

That little upturn of her lips, just at the corners, the twinkle in her eye and the slight eagerness in her movements.

"You know, if I were a suspicious woman," Madgella offered, "I'd say you purposely cooked my breakfasts wrong… to get me out of the house."

It was a suspicion that was more than doubled when Madgella got to her favorite breakfast spot, to find her friends already sitting down to their customary once-a-week social breakfast.

Madgella had lost track of the date.

Or perhaps she hadn't bothered to write it down in the first place.

"I thought you said you weren't coming," said Jimennali — but she radiated warmth when she said it. They all did, a gentle summer breeze wafting through the room with their words.

Jimennali called over to the waiter, who quickly set up another place at the table for Madgella.

Pwouia munched on a lightly braised kiypio wing. "It's that idiot pet of yours, again, isn't it?" she guessed. Gesturing at Sunshine, who'd settled down on the pet-stool beside Madgella. "She messed up your breakfast."

"Yes," Madgella said, sitting down herself. She stole a glance at Sunshine. "Funny how her breakfasts are always so drastically worse on social-breakfast days."

Sunshine bore her teeth, again — her face glowing.

And Madgella pat her head, fondly.

Smart mammal.

"You know, I've got the perfect replacement for you, Madgella," Callea said, from across the table, as she carefully carved the flyciax on her plate. "Fresh from Vedhor, and the most intelligent thing you'll ever see. They say whatever you feel, she picks up on it right away — and reacts to it before you realize you had the emotion to begin with! Rumors are, if you're dreaming of eating something, while you're asleep, the moment you wake up — she'll have it cooked and ready for you."

"That's ridiculous," Jimennali replied. "No mammal can do that!"

A little puff of smugness came off Callea, like a hint of hot air. "I'm telling you, this new research project at Vedhor's gonna spoil us all. Some day… all the pets will be like that."

"And they're researching things like that, instead of investigating where all this violence is coming from?" Jimennali turned back to her food. "Some people!"

"It's a waste of money," Pwouia agreed.

"And an invasion of privacy," Jimennali added. "My dreams are my own, thank you."

Madgella took advantage of their absorption in their conversation, so she could slip some food down to Sunshine.

She always wondered, during these kinds of conversations, just how much Sunshine could understand. And what Sunshine made of it all.

Madgella didn't know where Sunshine came from, or how she'd wound up in the hands of Dr. Kryvoyar, but… one thing Madgella was fairly certain of… was that her pet had never been to Vedhor.

And Madgella aimed to keep it that way.

"Better an invasion of privacy than a pet like Madgella's," Callea replied. She waved her hand in Sunshine's direction. "She's not _just_ stupid, you know — she's emotionally blind. Half of what Madgella feels goes straight over her head."

"She's hardly 'stupid'," Madgella muttered, as her own food arrived.

But it was clear from the currents in the air that none of them believed her. And were even a little annoyed that she persisted in the point.

"She's too small to defend you, personally," said Pwouia. "She's terrible at cooking, cleaning, organizational work, doesn't have a clue how to do standard pet-tasks around the—"

"That's defining 'stupidity' very narrowly," Madgella argued. "Sunshine might not have shown up in my house knowing what the mammals from Vedhor know, but she's still smart." She paused, thinking. "In fact… I think she's brilliant."

Madgella didn't need to sense the pity and amusement from her friends at this remark to know it was there.

She didn't think they'd ever understand.

"Listen, Madgella — we're all very happy you've finally found something to fuss over and care about, to bring you out of your… cloudy patch." Jimennila took a drink. "We just think you should have another around who can actually take care of you."

"Madgella doesn't need another pet," Pwouia argued, "she just needs to properly discipline her current one."

"She needs to get her current one brain surgery, more like," Callea corrected. She waved her flyciax, on the spear-fork, to make a point. "I'm not kidding about 'emotionally blind'. It's as if she has to focus really hard to pick up on anything we don't spell out for her in words!"

And sometimes, Madgella knew… Sunshine didn't pick up on the words, either. Like every so often, she couldn't understand what had been said. Madgella had once pondered if perhaps Sunshine, when she first arrived, was actually trying to work out words like the language was a puzzle.

But dismissed it, because it was impossible.

Everyone spoke the same language. How could she be from somewhere that didn't speak it?

"Trust me, Madgella — she's a botched science experiment," Callea concluded. "From the Vedhor labs."

Sunshine visibly started at the phrase 'botched science experiment'.

Madgella pet her hair, gently, until she calmed down.

"Now, Grassdew, on the other hand, is a wonder," Callea went on. "Yesterday, I spent half the afternoon arguing with Taeik, from the music shop. And I came home tense and tired and worn out. Next thing I knew — without having to tell him a word — Grassdew was running me a bath."

"You were at the music shop?" said Jimennila. She leaned over, lowered her voice. "Don't tell me Taeik's still having that affair with the shoe-shine lady, what's her name?"

They carried on like this.

The way they always did.

Back before the… the… night that destroyed Madgella's life forever…

(She didn't want to think about it.)

…Madgella had gossiped and gabbled in just the same way. So many petty little concerns, and they'd all seemed so big to her, once upon a time.

Now?

What did it matter who was having an affair with whom, or what Fasioli said last Tuesday about Jimennila's dress, or how much it cost to get a decent pair of shoes these days?

Madgella would trade in all of it to undo that night.

Bring back the dead.

She finished her breakfast, ready to head back home. A light drizzle sprang up overhead, and Madgella figured if she didn't retreat pretty soonish, she'd have the Weather Patrols after her.

But Sunshine was having none of it.

"No, Sunshine! I said back home!" Madgella yelped, trying to yank the leash and drag Sunshine back. But Sunshine had always been surprisingly strong for her size, and Madgella instead found herself dragged off towards the sunlit park.

The drizzle cleared up.

As Madgella struggled to get her pet under control.

Thing was, when Sunshine finally stopped wrenching her places, Madgella felt better. Out in the sunlight, where she could be warm and feel alive again, it made something happy hum deep down inside.

"I guess you do need some play-time," Madgella decided.

She leaned down, and disconnected the leash from Sunshine's collar. Sunshine darted out towards the open field, racing around with all the other pets. Madgella watched, from the side, as Sunshine began to gesture wildly at a male mammal, as if furiously miming a series of words.

Madgella was always curious about Sunshine's interactions with the other pets.

Sunshine's actions were never quite the same, but they were always wild and vibrant and emotive — much like Sunshine herself. She always came away with another peculiar expression on her face, and Madgella could rarely figure out what emotional state they represented.

"That's a very strange pet you have," said a man beside her, as he let loose his own pet to play in the field. "I've never seen them act so… energetic."

"Not 'energetic'," Madgella replied. "She's… got something more than that." She tried to think of how to phrase it, eyes still glued to the small blond figure in the field. "She's every storm, every burst of dawn, every gentle breeze and every ray of sunlight shooting through the clouds — all wrapped up together."

The man was amused.

"She's big, inside — big like the world," Madgella said. "And her actions are big. No reading my emotions to produce small gestures like food or clothing or baths. She forgets little things, ignores errands, burns food and refuses to do chores that — I think — she finds degrading."

"I… see," said the man.

Madgella could feel confusion in his words.

The same confusion anyone else felt, when they saw just how useless Sunshine was at standard pet-activities.

"But when I was about to fade away," Madgella said, "she saved my life."

The sun emerged from a cloud, shimmering down onto the park.

"And she keeps me alive, day after day," Madgella concluded. "I'll never forget that."

The man, now clearly uneasy and not understanding what Madgella was talking about, excused himself to chase after his pet. He dragged his pet away from Sunshine, and then — with a glance back at Madgella — led his pet away.

"They never understand, do they?" Madgella said, to herself.

"I think I do," said an unfamiliar voice.

As someone new emerged out of the shadows. Someone who looked… just the slightest bit awkward, like his movements were disjointed and a little too slow. And whose emotional ambience was…

Missing.

"Are you from the East?" Madgella asked. She'd heard the Weather Patrollers had been having problems with the East. And her general impression of easterners was that the vast majority were ill-bred hicks and farmers.

"Yes," the man put in, quickly. "New in town. I think I've heard of you, though — Madgella, right?" He held out his hand, paused, then — hesitantly — took it back. "Call me Dave."


	5. Chapter 5

Dave did not have a pet.

Due to his emotional problem, Madgella assumed — and she wondered if he was really secretive enough that he chose not to share any emotion at all, or if he had some horrible mental illness that made him unable to do so.

He kept sneaking glances back at Sunshine, though, as if transfixed.

"You want to tell me how it happened?" Dave asked. He used his hand to gesture towards Sunshine. "How she saved your life?"

Madgella was hesitant.

She'd told her friends the story, once, and they hadn't understood. And her husband's death was still enough on people's minds that reporters popped up from time to time, asking her for information they planned to plaster across the global news, as if her personal life were public property.

Then Madgella wondered if Dave could pick up on her hesitation, and so decided to spell it out for him.

"I'm hesitant," Madgella told him, very loudly.

"Yes, got that," Dave muttered, his voice bristling.

It was an interesting vocal modulation, and Madgella wondered what it meant.

"If you're a reporter," Madgella continued, "I don't have anything to say to you. My husband's death was a tragedy. I'm still dealing with the pain."

"I'm not a reporter. Just… interested."

Madgella still wasn't sure if she should tell him. What happened in the past, and the pain she still felt from it, was private. She couldn't stop her emotions from leaking into the skies for all to see, but the words she needed were still her own. And she didn't want them exposed to everyone.

Besides.

People never believed her.

"Everyone knows pets don't have emotional independence — they react and respond to their master's wishes," Madgella said, instead. "Of course they breed and have children and all the things their biology makes them do. But emotional ties — to a family, say, or a friend or even a fellow mammal — well, scientists agree that the mammals just don't get those."

Dave's spine stiffened at this.

"Ah," he said.

"But I think…" Madgella looked around herself. Then dropped her voice down to a whisper. "I think… Sunshine _can_. She's lost someone just like I've lost someone."

Dave glanced back over at Sunshine.

Who — finally noticing Madgella talking with a stranger — did a double-take, nearly tripping over her own feet.

"It's scandalous to say, I know," Madgella told him. "Ordinarily, I'd never have believed it. But Sunshine… isn't ordinary."

Sunshine strode over to them, her face staring at the stranger and twisting itself around in intricate ways that Madgella found fascinating.

"She wears her emotions on her face," Madgella explained to the stranger, hastily. "I haven't learned them all. It's so intricate and… fascinating."

Sunshine stopped, just beside Madgella.

Her face still fixed on Dave's.

"Hello," Dave said to Sunshine. He gestured at Madgella. "Your… owner… treating you okay?"

He tripped over the word 'owner', like it didn't fit in his mouth.

Sunshine, in response, crossed her arms and leaned to the side, shooting Dave another facial expression that Madgella had never seen before.

For some reason, though… Dave reacted like he knew what it meant.

Held up his hands, and backed away.

"Okay, okay," he said, still addressing Sunshine. "I can take a hint." He turned back to Madgella. "Good to meet you. Nice chat. We should do it again."

Then turned.

And left.

Madgella looked down at her little Sunshine, curiously. "You picked up on it too, didn't you?" Her eyes returned to Dave's fading figure, walking off into the distance. "There's something very strange about that man."

* * *

"…weird kind of… emotional telepathy," Dave was reporting into his thumb-corder. He'd long-since shed his lizard disguise, and was hiding away inside his ship, reporting his most recent findings. "They don't emote on the outside, and find it strange that they pick up no emotional telepathic signals from me, when they talk to me. There's a kind of mental disorder everyone thinks I have, something they get which doesn't let them publically share emotions… can't remember the name…"

He slumped down onto the chair.

Shoving his feet up onto the dashboard.

"Funny thing is, the humans they keep as slaves, here, pick up the lizards' emotions," Dave said. "They're expected to respond to those emotions in their work — and are beaten if they don't."

He dropped back his head.

Thinking through the day.

"At one of the restaurants… I saw the cook beating a human waiter, out back," Dave said. Trying to keep his voice level and neutral, though the coldness still seeped through. "The waiter hadn't noticed that one of his tables had a customer who felt dissatisfied with his food. The customer hadn't complained or asked for the food to be taken back, but this waiter was still expected to know…"

Dave stopped himself.

Everything about this society prickled at his childhood memories, and left a bitter taste in his mouth.

"The lizard-people say that humans don't get the emotional-telepathy brain disorder," Dave said, his voice very low. "I wonder how much these humans actually pick up. And how much they're being beaten for something they _can't_ do."

He'd gone through days like that, growing up in the Rechortia.

Being made to lift heavy objects when he was seven, then beaten when he didn't have the muscles needed to get them off the ground.

"One lizard lady said… humans have no emotional independence," Dave continued. "They honestly don't believe we can make friends or families or social connections. All they claim we're good for is the degrading jobs they don't want to…!"

He stopped himself again.

Steadied his voice.

Wouldn't help to get too emotional over this. Be steady, be calm, and leave the reaction to his audience. Because they _would_ react.

He resumed.

"Like I mentioned earlier, I met up with some independent civilians, going undercover down on the planet," said Dave. "One claims to be a 'captain'. The other's a…"

He stopped himself, as he realized he was about to say, "babe."

And amended, "…very brave civilian I met, a while ago."

Just thinking of her made something stir deep down inside him. It was funny — he'd think about her, remember her, try to picture her. But every time he saw her face… he'd always be shocked at just how gorgeous she really was.

Took his breath away every time.

Dave cleared his throat. "Anyways. The civilian — Seo — is a real science-type. She says that after analysis, it's clear to her that these humans are actual human beings. From Earth." He ran a hand through his hair. "Don't ask me how. I really don't know."

He was still going with lost colony.

Dave swung down his feet, and analyzed the dashboard. "Yeah, I'm guessing that got your attention."

He flipped a few switches.

"I'm inlaying the basic quadrant coding over this message," Dave reported. "You guys know the drill."

He turned off his thumb-corder.

Pressed it against the sync panel in his ship, to create the correct data transmission.  
But hesitated, just a second, before sending it out.

Thinking of Seo.

"Oh, get over it," Dave chided himself, resuming his work. "This is my career, here." He finished the encoding, and sent out the transmission — on a frequency they couldn't detect, here.

Standard procedure.

Not that he was about to mention any of this to Seo, of course. Who knew what she'd think, if she found out the truth?


	6. Chapter 6

"Meeting Madgella was a risk," was the first thing Seo said to Dave, the next time he snuck into the mansion, at night. "I hope you know what you're doing."

Dave shrugged — because he'd done enough of these things that he knew if anyone found him out, he'd just shoot them. No problem.

Then hesitated.

As he realized… with Seo around… that wouldn't be an option.

"I just wanted to make sure she wasn't mistreating you," Dave told her. "That's all. I…" He stared off into the distance. "I saw some things, today. Got worried."

Her frustration with him melted away.

Into gentle sympathy.

"It's horrible, how they're treated," Seo confirmed. "Isn't it?"

But Dave knew she was speaking only from an abstract moral idealism. She might be undercover as someone's pet, but even then… Seo was ultimately in charge. She'd never been helpless and enslaved with no way out and no future to look forward to.

Dave had.

And if Seo hadn't been here, with her critical eye and lovey-dovey ideas about killing, he'd probably have shot most of these slave-owning bastards through the forehead by now.

"I can't figure out how much of it they feel," Seo added. She furrowed her brow. "At times, I think they're just like you or me, and can feel everything. And other times… I wonder if this Vedhor place rewires their brains so the only emotions they can feel are their owners'."

"Vedhor," Dave repeated.

Seo shuddered. "Slave camp. Horrible. Used for…"

"…biological experimentation and general training purposes," Dave concluded. He waved his hand, dismissively. "Figured that one out pretty fast."

"Not just that." Seo leaned in. Whispered, "There are places across the ocean who use humans as manual labor in factories and stuff. They always need more, and… humans don't have a high enough birth rate to keep up with demand."

Dave stared at her.

Jaw dropping.

"You're kidding!" he cried. "They make people…!"

Seo shushed him, glancing upstairs towards Madgella's bedroom. She paused, listening, to make sure they hadn't woken her up.

No sound.

"It's inhumane," Dave muttered. "Revolting."

"Yes," said Seo. "And I have to get in there. Whatever's really going on, at the heart of this — it's happening at Vedhor. That's where I'll find enough answers to fix this."

Dave was going more with the give-the-humans-guns approach.

But he kept that to himself.

"At first, I tried to get Madgella to send me there," Seo admitted. She gave a small, mischievous smile, eyes fixed on the ground. "They've got a behavior training camp for miscreant pets, there, and… I figured if I was a rubbish enough pet…"

"You can't," Dave cut in. The thought of someone as beautiful and perfect as Seo being subjected to a place that… did… that…!

He _couldn't_ let that happen.

Just _couldn't_.

Seo laughed, a little. "Madgella agrees with you, apparently," she said. "She's made it abundantly clear that I'm not going anywhere near that place. Ever." She paused. Then, a little wistfully, "I think, despite my rubbishness… she's grown rather fond of me."

Dave didn't know how anyone wouldn't grow fond of Seo.

It would require someone with a heart colder than his. And that wasn't easy to find.

"She said you saved her life," Dave offered.

Seo stared at him. "What? Really?" Amusement growing on her face. "Don't know anything about _that_."

"That you being modest?" Dave asked.

"No, that's the truth," Seo admitted. "I mean, I did stop her from…"

She paused. Then carefully shut the door to the study. Making sure there was no way anyone could hear them.

And turned back to Dave, her voice much softer.

"Jack and I needed someone in the market for exotic pets," Seo whispered, "who wouldn't go to some other vet and start giving me brain surgery or removing one of my hearts or anything. And who had ties to Pets Rights Activists. Madgella seemed perfect — before he died, her husband had been extremely influential, and very pro-pet-rights. Their household had a reputation for being humane and fair to its pets, and I could get all the contacts I needed from hacking into the household databases."

Dave remembered his conversation with Madgella.

It suddenly made a lot more sense.

"Thing was, Madgella was really depressed," Seo continued. "She rarely left her house, and even though her friends kept trying to give her pets, she just shoved the pets out the door and locked herself inside. She was alone in here for weeks, I think. Just… fading away."

Madgella had said that, too.

"So Jack and I found a pretext to lure her to the park," Seo said. "Paid someone to try to steal her purse. I leapt out and chased down the culprit. Madgella was thankful, and when Jack came up dressed as a vet and said I was for sale…" Seo shrugged. "She got out her checkbook."

"I… see."

"Jack sprung our pretend-thief from jail, later," Seo added. "You don't have to worry. He's set for life."

There was still something that sat wrong in the pit of Dave's stomach, whenever he heard about Seo being 'bought' or 'owned'.

Didn't matter if it was all staged.

"What… exactly… happened to Madgella's husband?" Dave asked, instead. Mostly to change the topic.

Seo's face went dark.

"Everyone knows what happened — but no one knows why," Seo said. She tucked her hands behind her back, leaned against the closed door. "Maybe… Madgel found something that could blow the lid off this pet-thing. Maybe he just pissed off the wrong mob-boss at a party. Could be… the hit was actually intended to target Madgel's brother, who was visiting them at the time — and Madgel just got in the way."

"His brother?"

"Had some ties to organized crime, or so they say," Seo said. "Hushed up by Madgella's husband, when he became rich and powerful." She gave a small, sad shrug. "I haven't seen any evidence of that, myself. But the police could be keeping it close at hand. They still haven't caught the people who murdered everyone in this house, you know."

Dave nodded. "But you've got theories about who did it?"

"I know it was organized, based on how they broke in," said Seo. "I know it happened quickly. And I know… it was brutal." She looked out the window. "The murderers broke in here, during the early evening. Killed everyone. Pets. Madgella's husband. His brother. Even the little caged bird they kept in the living room. All gunned down, with their throats cut — just to make sure they were really dead."

Dave remembered when aliens had invaded his home, as a little boy. He'd watched them kill everyone, too.

"They'd have killed Madgella, too," Seo continued. "But she was out. Jimennali — one of Madgella's friends — had a fight with her husband or something, and had an emotional meltdown. Madgella left the house to stage an impromptu 'girl's night out', so Jimennali could feel better." She shuddered. "When Madgella got home…"

Dave could imagine.

Opening the door to discover blood everywhere, the bodies of everyone who comprised your world lying, dead and terrified, on the ground.

"She still has nightmares about it," Seo said. "The emotions from those are strong enough that I _always_ pick them up."

It made Dave sympathize with Madgella… a little.

But at the end of the day, she was still a slave-owning bastard who felt Seo was her personal property. Nothing could change that.

"So that's who _she_ lost," said Dave. Thinking back to what Madgella had told him — _she's lost someone just like I've lost someone._ "Who have _you_?"

Seo froze.

For several long moments, she didn't speak.

No sound but the night upoitues, chirping outside.

"My… mom," Seo breathed, at long last. "She's…gone."

Ah.

That was right.

Last time he'd seen her, she'd mentioned that her mom was sick. She'd been scared.

Seo didn't elaborate — but she didn't need to. He had experienced loss, too, and he could read it in her eyes. The need to constantly keep moving, because the moment you stopped, you'd remember that hole in your life where they should be… and break down. Those times when you think you've got yourself under control, and then something random happens that sets you off, and you find yourself screaming and tearing at anything nearby, because the pain is too much and you can't stand it.

"I'm sorry," Dave offered.

Seo's eyes snapped up to Dave. A fierce intensity burning inside of them.

"I lost her," Seo said. "But… I'm not letting the universe lose its hero. If she can't save the world… it's up to me. That's what she would have wanted."

She said it as if — knowing that was true — would help ease the pain.

But Dave could hear, inside of every word — it didn't.

"I'm…" Dave started to say, again.

Then decided… to hell with it.

And wrapped his arms around her. Holding her close, to make sure she knew… he was there. He'd be her protector — and, if she let him, her comfort.

Always. And forever.


	7. Chapter 7

Dave kept visiting Seo. Sometimes in his lizard disguise. Sometimes, at night, when they could actually talk.

And he could hold her.

She gave this beautiful, contented sigh when he held her. As if she could finally take a burden off her shoulders, and spend some time at peace.

She let slip things, from time to time. Like the fact that Seo's aunt, apparently, blamed Seo for what happened —

"Of course she blames me," Seo tried to justify. "It's my fault."

—and no longer wanted anything to do with her. And then Seo had gone off to find her father, tell him what had happened and find some family who still wanted to have something to do with her—

"It didn't work out," Seo said.

"He blamed you, too?" Dave couldn't quite believe it. He wondered if she had a bit of a martyr-complex, or if her whole family really was full of idiots.

Imagine!

Blaming someone as wonderful as… Seo. For anything!

Seo wrinkled her nose. "No," she said. "He's just decided to live as a hermit in Victorian England for a while. No guests allowed."

"Not even you?"

"Especially not me."

She snuggled into him, closer. Close enough that he could feel her hearts pounding away inside her chest. Her skin was soft and smooth beneath his touch.

She didn't take things further than cuddling, at that point.

That took _a lot_ of self-restraint from Dave.

He wouldn't — couldn't — push her. Not when she was still in mourning. Not until she decided she was ready.

(It was a lot easier to say it than it was to put it in action.)

During the day, Dave generally went out and gathered information. Generally… it was the kind of information he'd rather Seo didn't know he was gathering.

"Gun technology is pretty primitive," Dave reported into his thumb-corder. "Projectiles, mostly. A few neural stunners, but get a good tech guy in, and I bet they'll be a cinch to counter." He grinned. "Trust me, anyone with advanced technology could blow this planet out of space. Easily."

His best success so far was when he found and broke into one of their military bases.

"They do have some missiles that might cause some dents in space ships, so probably best to cloak during descent — or break into the military bases and disable the systems," Dave reported to his thumb-corder, wordlessly, as he snuck around the base he'd just evacuated with a false alarm. "Hardest problem you'll have is finding the bases in the first place. Obviously a society that gives the impression it doesn't need military might, but keeps them hidden in the basement just in case." He grinned. "Then again, if you're interested, you can give the signal to me. And I'll do it for you."

He snuck around, easily disabling the cameras and unlocking doors. Carefully keeping to the shadows, to avoid detection by the few military personnel still floating around.

"Five dollar wire-jammer, available to anyone with a 3D printer," Dave reported into his thumb-corder. "Disables every security system they have. Amazing."

Better still were the top secret documents he found just lying around in the base commander's private safe.

Which he'd opened in about sixty seconds using his superior human technology.

"And we have a winner," Dave told the thumb-corder. "Military base locations, deactivation sequences, top secret weapon locations, atomic codes, and…"

He paused.

"…the location of Vedhor," Dave muttered. Switched off the thumb-corder. "Better keep that."

Snapped holo-images of each document, for his personal records, then sealed the whole thing up and got the hell out of there.

Back to his ship.

To report.

When Dave was done with the work he couldn't tell Seo he was doing, he always tried to drop by to check on her. In disguise, usually. Unless it was night, and everyone else was asleep.

Not because he was worried about Madgella.

He was starting to figure out, by now, that Madgella wouldn't harm Seo — not intentionally. In fact, far as Dave could tell, Madgella basically let Seo decide where they were going and what they were doing, any given day.

Madgella wasn't the problem.

It was Madgella's friends.

Madgella had thrown a party, once, for friends and vague acquaintances, hosted at her house —

"Oh, I can't stand this moping around all day — drives me crazy!" Seo had explained to him, one night, in regards to the party. "But I think I've finally worked out enough of the social etiquette to pigeonhole her into a situation where she _has_ to hold a party. It'll be good for her."

—and Dave, despite not having an invitation, had managed to get in due to his increasing familiarity with Madgella—

"And I could use someone there standing up for my pet," Madgella admitted.

—which led to Dave's getting a very frank account, from everyone Madgella knew, about just how useless and stupid Seo was.

"She makes Madgella sunny," Jimennila said. "We're all pleased about that."

"But…?" Dave offered.

Jimennila emitted annoyance and irritation. "I just wish she had a more… normal pet!" She swished her tail. "I mean, this one actually _refuses_ to do certain activities! Can you believe it? Madgella thinks Sunshine finds them… 'degrading'… and lets her get away with it."

Considering some of these activities involved pre-chewing food, giving naked massages, and posing at the local carnival so kids could throw fruit at you… Dave could understand Seo's refusal.

One of the pets floating around this party seemed to have no other function than to make sure his owner's shoes didn't get dirty. Always dusting them, polishing them — even lying down so she could step over him, to avoid mud-puddles.

"Maybe some things _are_ degrading," Dave offered.

Jimennila's shock was palpable, like a sudden stream of cool air, puffing out from her. "She's a pet!" she said. "You can't get any lower than that!"

Besides which, it seemed to be the unquestioned privilege of the rich to have as many human slaves as they wanted, for as many petty and stupid tasks as they could think up.

"Sunshine? She's stupid and defective," Callea told Dave, as if this were the absolute fact-of-the-matter. "One of Vedhor's failed experiments. It must be true — Sunshine jumps every time I say it."

"Stupid?" Dave asked.

How anyone could mistake Seo for being stupid was beyond him.

Be in a room for more than two seconds, and it'd be blatantly obvious that she was the smartest person there.

"You didn't see her when Madgella first bought her," said Callea. "Forget emotion-blindness… that whole first week, she couldn't even understand our words! If you didn't shout it at her slowly, she'd never get it."

Dave had an explanation for that one. Seo had mentioned to him that she had a new ship who was "supposed to translate languages — on good days", but "he's very young and sometimes decides to throw a fit to get my attention, and stops working for a little while."

Apparently, this had happened during Seo's first week of working for Madgella. And — while Jack had been fine, with his Vortex Manipulator to translate for him — Seo had had to scramble to learn the language fast as she could.

Dave was impressed that she'd managed to figure it out in just a week.

"And she messes things up for Madgella all the time," Callea added. She used her tail to gesture around herself, at the party. "You know, Madgella was forced to throw this party because of something that pet did. How embarrassing is that?"

And Callea's rant didn't end there.

As she went on about how Sunshine had ideas above her station, how Sunshine clearly had significant brain damage, and how Sunshine was… too attractive.

Okay.

That wasn't exactly how Callea phrased it.

"While you've got the surgeons in there, fixing her brain," Callea said, "I'd tell them to change around her face, too. I'm no judge of mammalian mating rituals, but half the male mammals on this planet are probably lusting after her." To make her point, she snapped her tail around so it struck Grassdew — who'd been staring at Seo and not paying attention to anything else — across the face.

Grassdew snapped back to attention.

And polished Callea's shoes.

"It's driving those of us with male pets crazy," Callea informed him. "Let me tell you."

Dave didn't approve of slavery. Or hitting slaves who weren't completely fixated on polishing shoes.

But even he couldn't help but feel a little smug about the smack on Grassdew's face.

In fact, Dave wanted to get right into Grassdew's empty face and shout, "She doesn't care about you, she's mine!", but figured that would probably blow his cover.

So he stayed quiet.

Despite Jimennila and Callea being complete snobs who didn't give a rat's ass about anything that actually mattered, the most potentially threatening — in Dave's opinion — was Pwouia.

When he asked her about Seo, Pwouia had simply said, "Madgella is fond of her. She'll be fine."

What Dave only found out later was that when Pwouia said, "she'll be fine", she had carefully omitted the phrase, "…after I get through with her."

Pwouia had a habit of disappearing, throughout the party. Dave didn't notice until, when he was looking around, trying to find Seo, he heard Pwouia's shouting voice echoing through from the kitchen.

"No, you stupid freak," Pwouia said. "Does that look clean to you? Do it again!"

There was a loud smack, like Pwouia had just struck something.

But the echo of telepathic pain that crackled through the air like thunder… wasn't from Seo.

As Dave crept closer, he found Madgella hiding, spying on Pwouia and Seo, in the kitchen. Pwouia had clearly tried to strike Seo… and had instead struck the stone counter top, very hard. Judging by the way she was now holding her hand.

The rage was pouring off her in waves, now.

Madgella, on the other hand, seemed highly amused by the situation. If lizards could laugh, Dave imagined Madgella would be chuckling right around now.

She grabbed him by the arm and shoved him into her hiding spot. Which was especially alarming, for Dave — as he realized the lizard people were surprisingly strong.

And he couldn't escape.

"Don't you care that Pwouia is going to…?!" Dave began.

Madgella shushed him. "She thinks Sunshine's stupid. Maybe now, she'll learn!"

"Clean the floor again!" Pwouia demanded of Seo. She used her tail to grab up the trash can nearby, and dump its contents across the floor. "Properly, this time!"

Seo looked like she was minutes away from decking Pwouia.

But instead of jumping to her feet and attacking — or just shooting her, which was basically what Dave wanted to do — Seo simply grabbed up her cleaning supplies and bucket of soapy water, and began scrubbing.

Well…

Not exactly scrubbing…

As far as Dave could see, she was mostly just pushing things around. Then picking up bucket, moppy-thing that looked like a lillypad, broomish-thing that had a slimy handle, and her rag… and rearranging them. Or whichever ones she bothered to pick up.

Some just remained lying around.

"No, you idiot!" Pwouia snapped. "Pick up the bigger pieces of garbage with your hands, _before_ you clean the rest of the floor." She leaned down, threateningly. Tail swishing in a predatory manner. "And if you don't do it right… I'll make you pick them up with your teeth."

Seo looked up at her, blankly.

Then squatted back down on her hands and knees, and did exactly what she'd been doing before.

Pwouia grabbed up — what looked like — a rolled-up newspaper, and launched herself at Seo, ready to beat some sense into her.

But on her way, she slipped on a discarded fruit peel — carefully placed by Seo, earlier — so she tumbled backwards, grabbing for the moppish thing — also carefully placed by Seo — which gave way and swept across the countertop, knocking over the next few full trash cans, lined up there ready for Pwouia's next lesson.

Thunder actually split through the air outside.

Feeding off Pwouia's disgust, anger, hatred, and rage — so strong, now, it almost hurt Dave's head to feel it.

But the emotion was lessened by Madgella's absolute delight, watching it all happen.

"Smart little Sunshine!" Madgella cheered. "Show her who's boss!"

"You… you…!" Pwouia started, shaking her fist at Seo.

Seo stood up.

Keeping her face still carefully blank.

"You emotion-blind moron!" Pwouia said. She gestured at herself. "I'm smelly and bruised and humiliated! Do something about it!"

Seo raised her eyebrows.

Then, with a shrug, picked up the bucket of soapy water.

Threw it over Pwouia.

Then turned, and walked out of the room.

Her head held high.

Dave raced off to follow her, while Madgella darted into the kitchen to deal with the fallout from her friend. When Dave caught up with Seo, it was clear that the only thing bruised had been her pride.

"I've had it with Madgella's gaggle of rich snobs!" Seo hissed at him. "It's time I got that woman some better friends."

"Or," Dave replied, "you could let her sit around here and mope all day, while you slipped off into the study and worked on freeing human slaves."

Seo stopped walking. "I… I can't…!"

"Look, Madgella was sitting there, that whole time, watching you," Dave insisted. "She held me back so she could sit there and laugh at Pwouia humiliating you!" Pointing at where the altercation had happened. "She's no better than any of the rest of them."

Seo turned her head, to glare at the kitchens.

She clearly hadn't known she'd had an audience.

"You've gotten into her house," said Dave. "Found her contacts. Gotten everything you need out of her. Give it up and spare yourself some suffering!"

"I can't!" Seo bunched her hands into fists. "If I stop, she'll fall back into her depression. It'd be like murder!"

"She'll get over it," Dave said. Took her by the shoulders. "You're more important."

"She won't get over it, she'll be dead!" Seo waved at the transparent ceiling, above them. "They're reptiles whose emotions have an influence on weather patterns, Dave. Madgella went through something so traumatic… just _thinking_ about that event makes the sky cloud up and storms start — all localized on this house."

"A bit of rain never hurt anyone."

"She's cold blooded," Seo said, evenly. "Without sunlight, she dies."

Dave hesitated.

Realizing… what Seo meant.

"I've already led one person to her death," Seo said, turning away from Dave. "I won't lead another!" Her voice was laced with bitter anger. "No matter how many people call me a worthless genetic disaster!"

She was about to run off, but Dave caught her by her arm.

Disabling his lizard disguise, so he could see her properly. And she could see him.

"You're perfect," he said, stepping forwards.

Then he grabbed her up.

And kissed her.


	8. Chapter 8

The one thing that Dave and Seo had never managed to do, unfortunately, was to properly communicate with the humans.

Seo had tried everything.

"Sign language? Nothing!" Seo shook her head. "Miming what I mean? Nope! Straight forward telepathy? Doesn't work. I even started bringing my own props to wave around in their face, and… nothing!"

"If we can just make them know we're friends," Dave insisted, "I'm sure they'll speak!"

Seo looked at him, askance.

Then, "I don't think that's very likely."

"Why not?"

"Because they don't have vocal chords," Seo explained. "They _can't_ speak."

Oh.

Dave wondered just how that had managed to happen. Or if this was one of the things that happened to human slaves at Vedhor.

"Every person I try to talk to — man, woman, doesn't matter!" She shook her head. "No reaction."

She paused.

Then, with a little cringe, added, "Or… not the kind of reaction I want."

Dave didn't understand what she meant by this, and she refused to explain it. Since the party, it felt like she rushed over parts of her human interactions, trying to avoid getting further questions about it.

Something was wrong.

So Dave stuck around her, trying to figure out what.

He watched as Seo raced through the park, running around with the other pets and imitating their seemingly-mindless frolicking… but with her eye always on their interaction. Carefully trying to find the one she felt would be most receptive, and then find a way to communicate.

She found one.

Took him aside, went through every communication technique they'd discussed. With no results. He stared at her, blankly, no obvious signs of comprehension.

Then… Dave felt something happened. Something… he couldn't quite describe.

Nothing stopped. Everyone kept running around. Seo kept trying to communicate. The guy kept not responding. But… there was something different in the way he stared at her.

Like there was a kind of raw, primal lust that had been ignited in him.

Seo clearly noticed the warning signs at once, and darted away from her guinea pig. Looking around herself, carefully, eyes taking in every single human at the park.

She backed away, towards Madgella, her hands raised.

Dave took a glance, too.

And suddenly realized what Callea had meant when she said that guys were always staring at Seo.

Nearly every single human male at that park was staring right at Seo. All filled with lust. Some had a physical reaction that was more obvious than others.

The guy Seo had been trying to communicate with darted forwards, to grab her.

And Dave — without thinking — leapt into the middle of them, grabbing the other man and shoving him away. He was then rushed by yet another slave — but was able to quickly disable his opponent's untrained attack, using his own well-tuned skills.

"She's _mine_ ," Dave growled at his opponent, punching him in the face. "No one else's! Just mine!"

He didn't know why he leapt in.

Since he was still in disguise, Madgella immediately raced over and thanked him for saving "my little Sunshine". He wanted to punch Madgella, too, and make sure Madgella understood that Seo was _his_ , that she didn't dare say she owned Seo because…

But Seo was giving him a death glare.

And he realized… in her eyes, he'd just done the wrong thing.

"What was I supposed to do?" Dave insisted, the next time they met up in private. It looked like tonight, he wasn't even getting to cuddling. "You saw what they were like! They were animals!"

Seo buried her face in her hands.

"I know you're clever, but you need me around to defend you," Dave told her. "I saw the looks in their eyes. Who knows what…?!"

"And I saw the look in _yours_ ," Seo replied.

That made Dave hesitate.

"Ever since Jack and I got here, we've been seeing more and more of these kinds of things," Seo said. "A human, one day, will just… snap. Pick up a gun, and start shooting people. More recently, it's… this kind of thing." She met Dave's eyes, evenly. "You felt it, too. I heard what you said."

"I said he couldn't have you," Dave said. "I was defending you!"

"No, you said I was _yours_ ," Seo cut in. She shot Dave that look that made her seem very big, and him seem very small. "I've got an ex-boyfriend who thought that. When I said I wouldn't marry him, he locked me in a time rift and tried to brainwash me."

Dave stared.

Never mind that he wouldn't do that to her — he wouldn't even know _how_.

"I'm not yours," Seo warned him. "I'm not Madgella's. I'm not the Master's or Billy's or the Daleks' or… or… anyone else's! You can't own me; I'm not an object. I'm a person."

"I know," Dave tried.

He really wished he could think of some way to make her stop being angry at him.

But his brain was straight out of ideas.

Why did women have to be so… complicated?!

"So don't you dare treat me like I'm some bit of rubbish you buy and then lock in a cupboard and forget about!" Seo said. "Don't you dare talk about me like I'm some… some… valuable super-weapon you can sell on the black market! Don't you dare hang a collar around my neck or stick a brand on my forehead and—"

"Seo, I don't think of you as an object!" Dave cut in. "I said that because I love you!"

Seo stopped.

And Dave realized what he'd just said.

"I mean… I don't… I mean…!" Dave's brain went into overload mode, as he finally discovered he couldn't find a way to dig himself out of this. So he just… told the truth. "I can't stop thinking about you. Everything reminds me of you. You get more and more beautiful every single day, until I can't even think straight. And — yes, this whole planet with the slaves and aliens degrading them — reminds me of my childhood, and the more I see those lizard bastards, the more I want to grab my gun and kill them all stone dead. But I don't, because I know you wouldn't like it and I'd do anything for you."

He spat it all out as quickly as he could.

Then waited, terrified, as he realized… he had no idea how she'd react to all this.

"Oh," was all she said.

He waited for her to say more.

But she seemed mostly just… shocked.

"You actually stopped yourself from shooting people just because of me?" Seo asked.

"Yes." He analyzed her. Fidgeting, nervously. "Is… that okay?"

"Yes."

He waited for her to go on.

But she didn't.

"Feel… free to say 'I love you, too'," Dave prompted. "Just… any time you want."

Seo sighed.

And Dave's heart plummeted.

"You're sweet, Dave," Seo said. "And devoted and — if you claw away at the hard exterior — kind. I like you a lot, it's just…"

"You don't love me," Dave put in.

Seo shook her head. "I didn't say that," she insisted. "But… you're a mercenary."

"No, never; mercenaries fight for money," Dave corrected. "I didn't get paid for what I did. Chevauchéers don't get money, they fight for…"

He stopped, as he realized how she'd take this.

"…whatever they can plunder and sell off later," Dave muttered.

He could see in her eyes that she already knew this.

And didn't like it.

"But I have a new job!" Dave insisted. "I'm not a chevauchéer anymore."

"A job you hate."

Dave didn't have a good answer to this.

"Truth is… it doesn't matter if you're officially a chevauchéer or not," said Seo. "You still have that instinct to reach for the most deadly weapon you can. Any chance you get."

"To protect you," said Dave.

"And impress me," Seo muttered. "Yes, I know." She slumped, a little, in place. "But any real intimacy between us is going to involve a mental link. And as long as you have that attitude… we can't take things further. It just wouldn't be safe."

Dave looked at her, askance. "I'm not planning on taking a gun into the bedroom."

"No, really," said Seo. Looking him right in the eye. "It wouldn't be safe. To anyone on this whole planet." She sighed, and looked away. "And, anyways, even if we did take things further — just how much do you _really_ love me? I mean, I know boyfriends always say they love me more than money… but that's before they find out the going market price."

"…market price?" said Dave.

Trying to figure out what the hell she was talking about.

"Maybe you say you love me, now — and maybe you mean it," Seo continued, absorbed in her own little rant. "Maybe you'll even mean it, later. But… what about your friends? Your fellow chevauchéers? Super-weapons make great plunder, after all."

"Super… what?" Dave felt lost, and couldn't figure out how this had gone from simple rejection to… something extremely bizarre. He'd just put his heart on the line, told the most amazing woman he'd ever met that he loved her…

And now they were talking about… market values. For some reason.

"I promise… not to do… whatever you think I'm going to do to you?" Dave tried.

He pasted a smile onto his face.

It felt very forced.

Seo regarded him, carefully. "You don't have any idea what I'm talking about, do you?" she realized.

Dave shook his head.

Seo thought for a long moment.

"Whatever your answer is… just tell me the truth," Dave pleaded. "Don't leave me like this."

That seemed to make up her mind.

"You trusted me, when you didn't trust anyone," Seo said. "So… I'm trusting you. With the truth about who and what I really am." She took a deep breath. "And here it is."

At which point, Dave just listened.

Stunned.

As she told him everything.

* * *

Dave activated the thumb-corder, when he got back to his ship. To make his daily report on what he'd found out about this planet.

"I…"

Dave stopped himself.

Staring straight ahead.

"There's… the people here… they…"

She'd said she cared about him. She said she wanted to return his love. But she couldn't.

Because he never went without at least two guns on him, at all times. Only felt safe when there was a weapon in his hand.

And as long as he was like that, Seo couldn't let him inside her head.

Because she had one of the most deadly weapons in the universe, inside her mind.

"…the… military weaknesses… described…" Dave muttered.

If they became intimate… if he got inside her mind, and instinctively reached for that weapon, to impress her…

He'd activate the weapon inside of her.

And she'd kill him, in an instant. And possibly everyone else on that planet.

_They say guns don't kill people, people kill people — but I've_ been _the gun, Dave. And I've had to live with the guilt._

She'd been built as a weapon. Treated, over and over again, as little more than an object.

One whose value, on the black market, was through the roof.

( _After all — what's several solar systems' down-payment, when you're buying a weapon that'll give you access to the riches of the multiverse?_ )

But she _wasn't_ an object.

She was a person.

And before she could love him back… she had to be able to trust him. Enough to give him access to everything she was, and everything she could be — and know he wouldn't fiddle around and try to change her.

And maybe she was right.

Because his whole life had been one power-grubbing son-of-a-bitch shooting another power-grubbing son-of-a-bitch, and the only living he knew how to make was being the person in the middle who waited until both were dead and took the loot.

Dave looked down at the thumb-corder.

"Oh, fuck it!" he snapped.

Flipped it off.

Forever.

And left his ship.

* * *

He found her, asleep.

Had to wake her up by banging, hard as he could, against her window. And praying it didn't alert anyone else.

Seo came out, her hair sticking up and her eyes blinking back sleep.

"I've stopped," Dave said. "Everything I once was, every attitude I had… that's all over, now."

To illustrate the point, he took off every gun he had on him.

And discarded them into the bushes.

Seo still had this look of — 'remind me again why this couldn't wait until morning?'

"After the Pachoran Rechortia… I said I'd never let myself be helpless again. Lots of guns, no trust, no feelings." He held open his hands. "For you… I'll be helpless."

Seo stared at him.

Then gave him a soft smile.

"If you won't be mine… I'll be yours," Dave offered. "How's that?"

"It's…" She gestured at him. "Get down here!"

He knelt down by the tiny, ground-height basement window.

And she grabbed him by the shirt, dragged him forwards, and gave him a long, deep kiss.

"Does… that mean… you love me?" Dave panted, once they broke away.

"I'm working on it," Seo said. A twinkle in her eyes. "But I'm a lot closer now than I was a few hours ago."


	9. Chapter 9

"Nothing?" Jack said, when at their next month's check-up. "Four weeks later. And… you've got nothing new."

Seo's face flushed.

She looked away. "I've… been… busy."

Jack, of course, worked it out immediately.

"You and Dave Korjensky, huh?" A wicked grin spread across Jack's face. "Good choice. Historical figure, and a hottie. Gotta love the muscles."

"Jack, it's not…!"

"No, really," Jack insisted. "I mean, you're 85 years older than the age of consent — you can make your own decisions. And Dave's got great eyes. So — you two go at it!" He paused, then modified, "Just make sure it's safe, consensual, and — if you want to get rough — make sure you have a safety word planned ahead of time. In a language you can both actually pronounce — I've made _that_ mistake before."

"Jack!"

"Oh, and use protection," Jack added. Because if Seo got pregnant under his watch… the Doctor would skin him alive. "Don't hit too hard with the whips, and if you're playing dominatrix, watch for leather-burns, they're a killer. And if you wanna do it on an airplane, then—"

"Jack!" Seo cried, her face now bright red.

Jack paused. Then realized… just because _he'd_ jump into bed with the cute muscular army guy first chance… didn't necessarily mean _she_ would.

Or had.

"Just… to keep in mind," Jack amended. "In case it has — or ever will — come up."

Seo bit her lower lip.

"Oh, no," Jack said. "Don't tell me you two tried, and he couldn't manage to…?"

Seo buried her face in her hands. "I've only known him for a month," she muttered. "I can't trust him like that, yet."

Oh.

"Gotcha, it's a twenty-first century thing," Jack said. He nodded, sagely. "Fair enough. Guess there's something to be said for waiting until—"

"It's a telepathy thing," Seo cut in, frustrated. She cringed. A little nervous. "If we decide to… you know… then I let him into my head."

"And you're worried he'll pull a Bilis Manger style trick, and screw with your perceptions?" Jack guessed.

"Dave? No, he wouldn't. But…" Seo cringed, again. "He's a tough-guy. Always reaches for weapons." She tapped the side of her head. "And I've got a weapon up here."

Jack hadn't thought of that.

"If he flips me into that," said Seo, "either deliberately or because he's lost control… I kill everyone on the planet."

Jack nodded, slowly. "Kind of ruins the mood, huh?"

Actually, he'd met a lot of people who'd disagree with that statement. But he figured none of them were really… Seo's 'type.'

"Mass genocide?" Seo asked. "Or killing my lover?"

Her face settled into a deep frown.

And she sighed.

"I like him, Jack," Seo admitted. Wrapping her arms around herself. "I like him… a lot. Just on an emotional level, if he wasn't here… I think I'd be a wreck, right now."

Jack thought back to Torchwood.

To Ianto Jones.

…Ianto…

"Helps to have someone there for you, like that, huh?" Jack asked, softly.

"This whole pet thing — it's humiliating and degrading," said Seo. "Having people throw rubbish at me. Or run around laughing at me. Or explain — to my face — that I'm some sort of defective, broken pet — a worthless waste of space." A small smile lit up the edges of her face. "But with Dave around… it's all right. Doesn't matter that I'm a dangerous botched genetic mish-mash from a universe that should never have existed. He loves me. He's… willing to give up everything for me."

Wow.

This was starting to sound serious.

Which… considering Dave Korjensky was a major historical figure who needed to stick around here so he could fulfill his destiny and change the face of the galaxy forever… was probably not the greatest thing in the world.

"Well… before he gives up everything," Jack muttered, "maybe you two should see if it's… actually gonna work out. Figure out living arrangements."

He kept wracking his brain for any mention, in history lessons, of David Walter Korjensky III settling down with someone named Seo… but he couldn't. No, worse than that… he remembered learning that David Korjensky III _would_ settle down and get married… even have a couple of kids… with someone whose name Jack couldn't remember…

Except that it certainly wasn't Seo.

"We're taking things slow," Seo promised.

"Yeah — good call," Jack decided. "Take it slow as you want. Don't let him bully you, Seo — anytime you don't feel comfortable, you say stop. And if he doesn't…" He shrugged. "Kick him where the sun don't shine."

* * *

Dave didn't even have time to hide the map he was studying, before he was grabbed by his collar and yanked into the vet.

And came face-to-face with Jack Harkness.

"Look," said Jack. "I dunno what's going on between you two. If you think this is a one-off, or a casual thing, or serious, or whatever. But whatever you think, you gotta tell her — because she's been living in the early 21st century, and her ideas about sex are going to be completely different from…"

Jack stopped.

His eyes catching the map in Dave's hand.

"What you got there?" Jack asked, grabbing the map from him.

Dave stumbled, then lunged forwards and grabbed it back. Stuffing it away. "None of your business."

But he could tell from the look on Jack's face that Jack already knew what it was.

"Vedhor," Jack said. "You found the location of Vedhor! How'd you…?"

"I broke into a military base," Dave replied. "A while ago." He said nothing for a while, feeling the overpowering concern from Jack all focused on him. The one thing Seo had been looking for, all this time, and he hadn't shown it to her.

"Only stored on physical paper," Jack realized. "So that explains why I couldn't get it through data channels. Should have thought of that!" He flashed Dave a smile. "Gonna show it to Seo and get on her good side for a while?"

Dave considered just braining Jack and making a run for it.

But if Jack, after he woke up, told Seo everything…

"I'm not telling Seo," Dave said, at last. "I don't want her going there. I just… can't stand the thought of her getting hurt."

"So you've decided to play the hero and go there instead?" Jack guessed.

Dave didn't answer.

Didn't have to.

Jack crossed his arms, thinking all this through. Then, a little reluctantly, shrugged. "She'll hate it. But I can see your point."

Dave looked up at Jack.

"I'll go," said Jack, holding out his hand for the map. "Not you. Doesn't matter so much if they kill me."

Dave didn't give him the map.

This was _his_ mission.

_His_ chance to prove himself to her!

Jack raised his eyebrows at Dave. "You won't get any brownie points for suicidal heroics."

"Bet I wouldn't get any more from sending her friend to his death," Dave replied. "Besides. I pick up on the emotions better than you. I'd blend in."

Jack hesitated.

Then, very slowly, dropped his hand.

And gave in.

"Be careful, and leave all signs of alien tech behind," Jack warned. "Guns, Earth-tech. Even your disguise. If there's anywhere that'll be able to detect it and use it to trace the rest of us down, it's Vedhor."

Dave looked down at the switched-off disguise mechanism that Seo had given him.

His frown deepening.

He'd hoped to sneak in as a new guard, not as one of the humans. But… if taking it along meant placing Seo in danger…

"And don't start a shooting match," Jack cut in, suddenly. "No matter what you see, or who you wanna stick up for. Seen way too many Torchwood Agents go into an infiltration situation like this, completely surrounded and out-gunned, and decide to start shooting up the scenery." He shook his head. "Never works out like it does in the movies."

Dave took off his disguise.

And placed it on the table, beside Jack. "No shooting matches," he promised. Adding, with a wry laugh, "Seo wouldn't like it, anyways."

Jack slid the disguise off the table, locked it in a secure cupboard. "Good man."

"Don't tell Seo where I've gone till I get back," Dave warned. He turned, to go. "Shouldn't be long."

Jack stopped him.

"You know there's a minefield surrounding the place," Jack checked. "Right? Triggered by mammals only."

Dave hadn't.

But he probably should have guessed.

"Give me back that map," said Jack. "I found a detail of the minefield a while back. Think I can give you a bit more clue as to mine locations." He paused. "Then… we should discuss exactly what information she needs from Vedhor. And where you could find it."


	10. Chapter 10

As it turned out, Dave didn't have to worry about the minefield.

Because when he got close enough, he found a broken-down cargo van, carrying pets to Vedhor.

And the moment the reptiles out fixing it saw him, they muttered something about his being an escapee, and rounded him up.

Dave didn't struggle.

Not even as they created a small aperture in the side, and thrust him into a web of sticky membrane. And slammed the aperture shut behind him.

The membrane gradually disintegrated, as Dave's eyes adjusted to the dark and the van began hopping forwards, yet again.

He found himself surrounded by humans.

All silent.

But — unlike the humans he'd seen up until this point, on this planet — these didn't have empty stares. Some raged, throwing themselves at the sides of the van or at the other passengers, and pounding their fists. Some curled up in a corner and cried. One wild-haired woman hugged a small child to her, tightly, staring out in fear at those around her.

Dave stepped back, not taking part in whatever was going on here.

Just waited.

As the van whisked them all off to Vedhor.

* * *

Madgella froze, on her walk with Sunshine. Seeing the squad just ahead of her, and recognizing the insignia on their outfits.

Her fear tingled like static in the air.

As she spun back around, dragging Sunshine behind her.

"Run," Madgella whispered. "Fast!"

Sunshine had seen them, too — and had already adopted the blank expression she usually wore when confronted with authority figures or situations likely to attract them.

But this time, Madgella could see something else struggling to break through on her face — as she kept lingering behind, glancing back to get a better look at them.

Madgella yanked the leash, hard as she could.

And Sunshine choked, as she stumbled forwards.

"Don't stare at the Weather Patrollers," Madgella said. "They're here for me. Not you." She was already trying to think of a place she could hide Sunshine, for when the Weather Patrollers showed up. "They must be concerned about the constant clouds over my home. My emotions are changing the weather patterns too much, and they're here to give me therapy and treatment."

Madgella thought of her friends. Surely Sunshine could hide there! But… no. She didn't trust her friends with Sunshine. But who else…?

Sunshine raised a single eyebrow at Madgella.

Madgella knew, by now, that this was Sunshine's way of requesting more information. Probably trying to understand just why Madgella was in such a panic over this.

Therapy, after all, might be just what she needed.

"The Weather Patrollers are good people," Madgella said. "Kind. Compassionate. Protectors and guardians of this world. I'll be fine. As long as you hide."

Sunshine still had that inquisitive look on her face.

And Madgella knew she'd have to do better than that.

"Pets — most pets — are emotional sponges," Madgella said, dragging Sunshine around a corner so that the Weather Patrollers were out of sight. "If one of us is too tempestuous or stormy, it usually means we've corrupted our pets with those emotions, too. Our emotions live through them, after all. So after our treatment, the only way to make sure those emotional problems don't return…"

Sunshine seemed to understand.

She turned, and sprinted into the distance. Madgella struggling to keep up, as she realized… they were headed right towards the Vet.

The Vet!

Of course!

Dr. Kryovar might be corrupt, but he was happy to take Madgella's money. If she paid him enough to keep Sunshine hidden…

Madgella raced after her pet.

Scarcely daring to breathe, as she felt the presence of the Weather Patrollers nearby…

* * *

Dave had been expecting Vedhor to be like the Rechortia, where he'd grown up as a kid.

It wasn't.

This place was carefully hidden, with vast, impenetrable walls and firepower surrounding it. And it was filled to bursting with empty-faced humans, hair shaved and scars all atop their heads, penned in like animals.

Scars?

Brain surgery? Dave wouldn't put it past the lizard-scum on this planet.

Funny thing was, while Dave had gotten used to picking up telepathic emotions from the lizards on this planet — the guards here were different. They didn't seem to emote — like they were specifically pulling back, and not revealing anything.

All Dave could pick up, in the air, was a pull — like countless tentacles surging out in a desperate attempt to bore through his mind and drain his emotions.

He and the others were quickly herded away from all that.

And dragged into a building made of a material Dave had never seen before. Its ceiling covered with mist. And — the moment Dave entered — he felt all psychic pulls suddenly cease.

A shielded location, Dave guessed. Shielded from… whatever had been causing that tug at his mind.

Dave and the other strays were thrown into a metal-mesh cage crammed full with other humans. Most had bad teeth and worse breath, hair a mess, and covered head to toe with filth and ragged clothes. Escapees, Dave figured.

What these guards called "Strays".

Dave had seen them, back when he'd first arrived on this planet and had been grabbed by the Stray-Catchers. He'd been too angry to care, at the time, but… he recalled, now, what the lizard man had said their fate was. Some strays were sold to unscrupulous vets for experiments. Most, however, were shipped here.

The moment they were all secured, the mist on the ceiling consolidated into something that looked like a raincloud.

And a torrent of large, cold raindrops gushed from it.

Their equivalent of a shower, Dave guessed. He'd been through worse. Just gritted his teeth and bore it. Trying to apply his mind to some way he could escape, and get Seo the information she needed.

About the experiments.

And about who these humans really were, and where they actually came from.

When the shower stopped, and the raincloud dispersed back into mist on the ceiling, the captives in the cage found themselves surrounded by guards, all pointing guns.

The doors were still wide open, at the far end of the room.

Dave wondered how he could sneak past the guards, and make it out of there. Best chance, after all…

One man seemed to have the same idea, though. He raced out, running for an empty spot in the guards' circle, sprinting for that door and his freedom.

There was a shot.

And the man fell down. Dead.

"Anyone else try that," the guards announced, "and you'll be following him."

Dave followed the others out, as they all cowered. Even the ones he'd seen pounding their fists on the side of the van, earlier, were now cowed and docile. He, himself, felt a heavy weight on his mind, as if someone were pumping him full of sedatives to stop him fighting back.

He looked up at the mist on the ceiling.

And wondered if it served another purpose.

The guards began dividing up the prisoners, starting at the front of the crowd and working their way back. Dave edged his way to the very back of the crowd, so that he stood just in front of the guard who was manning the rear, gun nearly in his back.

Sedative or no, Dave wasn't letting himself get culled.

He'd gotten out of tighter spots than this.

The whole thing went on in near silence — which Dave found eerie. The guards muttered a few things as they sorted through their new shipment of humans — but there were no anguished screams, no sounds of fear, no desperate protests from the people surrounding Dave.

Dave took in the room around him.

Spotted the door on the other side.

Didn't look like it lead outside, to the pens. But he didn't need to go there, anyways — Jack had said head for a complex, somewhere the Vedhor scientists might be performing surgery or experiments. All he had to do was slip out of the guards' sight.

He skimmed his eyes across the room.

They landed on a spot, a few feet behind him. One at the side of the room where the mist was thicker — thick enough to hide a person inside it, and no one would ever notice. Dave shifted a little, in place. Just a matter of finding a way to slip inside it, then wait until the rest of the group was processed and the room was empty…

A scuffle.

Dave looked up.

Saw, at the front of the crowd, the wild-haired mother who'd been clutching her son on the van-trip over here. The guards were dragging her away from the child — and she was fighting and clawing and tearing, desperately, to try to get him back.

The son fought, too.

Mirroring the mother.

He was about the same age as Dave had been, back when _he_ had been taken from his own family. Too young to ever forget, but young enough to train and turn into the perfect slave…

Dave didn't think.

He rammed into the guard behind him, tipping the lizard off-balance and twisting his arm so he couldn't shoot straight. The guard cried out, tried to shoot — but the shot went wide, and the lizard's feet slipped on the floor.

Dave had the element of surprise, and he was taking it.

He ducked the guard as the lizard swung at him with claws, then spun around on him and twisted the gun from his hands — shoving him down so the lizard toppled to the floor.

Without even thinking, Dave leveled the gun.

And fired a bullet straight through the guard's head.

Then pivoted around on his heels, and fired again over the heads of the humans cowering in front of him. Each of his shots squarely hit one of the guards trying to separate the little boy from his mother. Each lizard screaming out and dying, under Dave's precision.

The humans around him, realizing the danger, scattered.

As all the other guards opened fire on Dave.

Dave rolled, then raced for cover, shooting back and trying to pin them down. He could feel static building in the air around him, and wondered if they could use the mist on the ceiling to create lightning strikes as well as rain.

He wasn't sticking around to find out.

He took his first chance, and aimed for the controls he figured probably operated the doors. They sparked and fizzled, the moment he hit them, and the doors began to open. Dave aimed again, and the whole control panel went up in flames, creating the perfect distraction.

He broke cover.

Raced for the door he'd come through when he first got here, shooting at the guards the whole time. Didn't know how many he killed, getting out. Didn't care.

Didn't care that Seo wouldn't like it. Didn't care that Jack had told him not to start a shooting match. Didn't care that he'd just proved Seo right — he _would_ always reach for the nearest gun, even when he wasn't carrying one around, himself.

All that mattered was — he'd saved that kid and that mother. Saved all the humans, here, all following him out the door.

Getting everyone to safety.

Dave had gotten half-way out the door when he felt a bullet slam into his leg. He couldn't stop himself crying out, as he stumbled, then whirled around and tried to shoot back at whoever had hit him.

But the other humans all trying to escape stampeded past him, knocking him to the ground and messing up his shot. Dave knew, if he fell, here, he'd be trampled to death. He had to get away. Used every spare scrap of strength to limp away from the crowd and into the clear, where he could take more effective shots.

The moment he escaped the crowd, though, the gun was knocked from his hand.

And he was jumped by ten lizard guards, pinning him to the ground and refusing to let him go.

Dave kept struggling.

But even he knew he'd lost.

Damn.

One of the lizard guards approached, raising his own gun to fire the killing blow at Dave.

"Stop," came the command.

The guard didn't fire.

As a lizard in a different apparel stepped forwards, analyzing Dave like a specimen in a lab. This lizard had a green pad of paper in front of him, and was scribbling down notes.

"Listen to this stray," the differently-clothed lizard said. "He grunts. He groans. He cries out. He's got a voice box." The lizard stepped forwards. "And knows how to use our weapons perfectly. Fascinating."

"There have been reports of violent attacks before, Chief Analyst Pokot," said the guard still training his weapon on Dave. "Pets who get their hands on guns and start going ballistic. The Weather Patrols are already trying to hunt down the cause."

"Yes, but none of those could shoot straight to save their lives," Pokot replied. "This one can. A fascinating specimen — I wonder if it's the one causing all the trouble?" He paused. Then, with a wave of his hands at the remaining guards, demanded, "Bring me the boy."

Dave turned his head.

To discover the mother, dead, on the ground a few feet from him.

And the little boy standing beside her. His face completely blank, like all the other pets Dave had seen outside.

Blank.

With no brain surgery needed?

"What did you scumbags do to him?" Dave demanded, before he could stop himself. He started fighting back, again, trying to get to the boy.

The boy, without warning, suddenly began fighting back, too. Shoving at the guards and trying to grab for their guns.

If Dave had expected some huge reaction from the lizards over the fact that he could talk — that was _nothing_ compared to the reaction he got from the guards, when they saw the effect Dave had on the little boy.

Any emotions the lizard guards had been suppressing swarmed through the air, in a second. The mist overhead starting to swirl into a cyclone, overwhelmed by the commands.

The boy's fighting faltered.

Then stopped. As the boy looked around himself, his face blank once more, trying to digest all the different emotions around him.

"Get yourselves under control!" Pokot demanded of the guards. And the authority he wielded ripped through the other emotions like a tidal wave.

Until everyone else had snapped back to attention.

Emotions hidden, once more.

A telepathic silence.

"Take the boy away, before he's corrupted," Pokot said. His eyes still fixed on Dave. "I think we have our answer." He gestured to the guards still restraining Dave. "Bring him."


	11. Chapter 11

Seo kept struggling to suppress her emotions, as Madgella began paying Jack some huge amount of money, making him promise to keep 'Sunshine' safe and hidden no matter what.

Seo needed to talk to Jack and Dave.

_Now._

Almost the moment Madgella left, Seo was dragging Jack into the back, almost tugging him off his feet.

"Don't emote — not any more than you can help, anyways," Seo was telling him. "That's what the Weather Patrollers will be looking for. It's how they'll track us down. They must have guessed that you, I, and Dave were…" She spun around to face Jack. "Where's Dave? Have you seen him, recently? If I don't warn him…!"

"Whoa! Slow down!" Jack said, managing to extricate himself from her grip, and raising up his hands. "What's going on? Who are these… Weather Patrollers?"

Seo sighed.

Trying desperately to suppress her frustration.

"Weather Patroller — the answer's in the name!" Seo said. "These lizard people emote telepathically, and it influences the weather of this planet. Weather Patrollers come in when there's a drastic imbalance in the weather patterns, so they can take emotionally imbalanced people in for therapy and solve the problem."

Jack nodded, slowly. "Yeah — should have guessed that," he said. He gestured in the general direction of Madgella's house. "So they're here for her? Probably good for her."

" _She_  thinks that," said Seo.

Jack paused. Dropping his hand.

"If they were going to take her, they'd have done it already," Seo reasoned. She shook her head. "These humans have been altered to pick up emotions — and I'm guessing, if they've been flipping out—"

"…it's got something to do with us." Jack swore under his breath. "That explains a lot."

"I've seen evidence of it with you and Dave," Seo said. "Like that time when you got angry and said these humans should be fighting back — and that one human began attacking people at random. Or when Dave first turned up, ready to attack anything that moved — and all the humans turned hostile and aggressive, against him." Her face flushed, a little, as she looked away. "And… when Dave started falling in love with me… then all the other male pets…"

"Picked up on that emotion," Jack concluded, working it out. "Gotcha."

Seo nodded. "So you can see — if the Weather Patrollers are here… I've got to find Dave and warn him. He picks up on the lizards' emotions the most, so he'll be their prime target." She thought, furiously. "If I can just convince him to suppress his emotions as much as possible, the Weather Patrollers won't…"

Seo stopped.

As she realized that Jack's disguise lizard-form wouldn't meet her eyes, anymore.

She grabbed for Jack's wrist, and switched off the disguise mechanism she'd wired into his Vortex Manipulator. The moment Jack emerged for real, she could see it on his face — even though he tried to hide it.

Something he wasn't telling her.

"Jack," Seo said, her voice very low, "where's Dave?"

Jack hesitated.

Saying nothing for a very long time.

Then, tapping a few buttons on his Vortex Manipulator, he made it project a map in midair, floating before them both.

"I fed him some bull about a mine field," said Jack. "To get a copy of this. He said not to tell you."

Seo stared at the map.

"Vedhor," she breathed.

No matter how much she tried to dampen her emotions, she couldn't stop the fear from flooding through her as she realized what must have happened.

"Why didn't you stop…?!" Seo shook her head. "No, don't answer that. He wanted to be a hero, didn't he? To impress me!"

Jack shrugged. "I warned him not to start shooting the place up," he said. "Figured, as long as he kept a low profile, he'd be fine. And if he wasn't back soon, I'd just use the map myself and head off to stage a rescue. Not much of a risk for someone who can't die."

"But Dave  _can_  die!" Seo pulled a small metal disk out of her pocket, then grabbed Jack by the wrist and crammed the disk into the Vortex Manipulator. "And he might already be dead!" She pressed a few buttons on the VM, then yanked it out, the map downloaded.

Spun around.

And raced down towards the basement.

"Seo!" Jack said, rushing after her. "Wait! You can't—!"

"The Weather Patrollers are out hunting for us," said Seo, not looking back, as she arrived in the basement. In the corner, nestled away, was something that looked like a cardboard cutout of a derelict operating table. Except instead of green, it was neon orange. And — at its base — still looked faintly like the tree it had impersonated on their last planet. "That means the authorities know we're here, and are looking for humans who don't quite fit the bill. You want to think what they'll do to Dave, when they realize he's exactly the man they're looking for?" She gritted her teeth. "I can't let anything happen to him."

"So let  _me_ go stage a rescue," said Jack. He spread open his arms. "Can't die, remember?"

"You can't fly my ship, either," said Seo, as she unlocked and opened a hidden door in the incongruous operating table. "And I need to get there as fast as possible." She glanced back behind her. "Goodbye, Jack."

He lunged forwards. "Seo…!"

But she'd already shut the doors.

As the ship, with a wheezing groan, disappeared from sight.

* * *

Madgella tried to find the Weather Patrollers, to turn herself in. But… she couldn't find them, for some reason.

She figured… perhaps they were already heading for her house. Or heading there. She went back home, waiting for the inevitable. Knowing this was for the best, but she just…

She just wished…

"Sunshine will be fine," Madgella told herself. Trying to believe it. "She's smart for a pet. Even without me, she'll be…"

Madgella didn't dare finish her thought.

Truth was… Madgella knew that Sunshine  _needed_  her. How could Sunshine survive on her own? Poor, sweet Sunshine, so filled with life and emotion!

What would Dr. Kryvoyar do to her? What if she was sold to Vedhor, and… and…!

It was a thought that struck enough terror through Madgella that she considered abandoning reason altogether. Going on the run from the Weather Patrollers, to hide with her Sunshine — somewhere that Madgella could look after her pet without fear of any harm coming to the dear little thing.

But she didn't run away.

And the Weather Patrollers didn't come for her.

It took a while before Madgella had the courage to phone up her friends and ask them to check on the Weather Patrollers. The Weather Patrollers had left, quite suddenly. As if they'd completely missed the storm clouds around Madgella's house, and had decided the problem must be somewhere else.

Madgella's friends couldn't understand it, either.

"Everyone knows you need help," Jimmenila told her. "It's only natural, after what you've been through. Maybe we could call them back, and—"

But Madgella stopped Jimmenila.

No!

"Sunshine needs me," Madgella insisted. "And I can't let them hurt her. If the Weather Patrollers weren't here for me… maybe that's better!"

"Madgella," Jimmenila replied, "you nearly killed yourself, after it happened. Sunshine's just a pet — if her sacrifice will make you feel better, then you're more important!"

Madgella hung up.

Huddled inside her house, for a long while, afterwards. Thinking through what Jimmenila had said. She was right, of course — Madgella still hadn't gotten over it. Still had nightmares so real she thought she was really back in that moment when she first discovered everyone dead and her husband…

But giving up Sunshine…?

"She's just a pet; not even able to talk," Madgella decided. "She needs me. She trusts me." She swished her tail. "I won't let any harm come to her. I won't!"

Madgella stayed away from the vet, all day. Just in case the Weather Patrollers were waiting for her to go and retrieve her pet, before they swept in to take her away.

She wasn't letting them cart Sunshine off to Vedhor.

No matter what.


	12. Chapter 12

 

Dave didn't stop struggling.

Even as he was strapped down to an operating table, guards on all sides either holding him down or pointing guns at his head, to make sure he couldn't possibly get free.

Pokot analyzing him, carefully.

"What did you do to that kid?" Dave demanded. "How'd you empty him out like that without surgery?" He struggled even more. "It's something to do with what I felt when I first came here, huh? Some kind of… emotion-drainer in the air, here?"

The lizards didn't bother answering him. Just glanced up at the mist covering the ceiling, which responded to their telepathic signal and descended down towards Dave. Smothering him with sedative, making his head feel muggy and distant.

Obscuring his sight.

He thought… he heard something, in the distance. Couldn't place the sound.

But his struggles were growing more and more sluggish. His mind growing more and more hazy. The mist began to lift from his vision, but… lingered in his mind.

The guards loosened their grip.

"The mammal's calming, Chief Analyzer," one of the guards reported.

Dave could see — through the dissipating mist — Pokot with a scalpel in hand, leaning down and waving away some residual mist so he could see better. "I was going to start the incision at the larynx," said Pokot. "But given his influence on the larger world, I should probably begin by disengaging his brain from—"

The door burst open.

All the lizards turning towards it in an instant. Guards raising their weapons.

"Who are…?" Pokot began.

There was a crackle of electronics.

Then a sharp cry from the minds of every lizard nearby, flooding Dave's mind like a white light, driving out the lingering mist.

Followed by thuds.

As they all collapsed onto the ground.

"Took me thirty tries to land here," came a familiar voice. A breath of relief. "Looks like I'm just in the nick of time."

Dave craned his neck, to see what had happened.

And saw…  _her_.

The most beautiful woman he'd ever known.

Standing, framed in the doorway, her blond hair tumbling down across her shoulders and her clever brown eyes sparkling.

Seo rushed towards him, undoing the straps and releasing him. "The effect won't last forever," she explained. "That mist was a psychic amplifier, concentrated on humans." Nodded at the knocked out lizards nearby. "I switched it to work on them, instead, then overloaded it. Massive psychic shockwave." She gave him a hand, helped him sit up. Her eyes narrowing. "You started a shoot-out, didn't you?"

Dave figured there was no right answer to that question.

So he kept his mouth shut.

Seo sighed. "For a clever bloke, you can be a real idiot," she said, pulling him back to his feet. "Whatever you think of me — Jack's no anti-gun nut. He killed invading aliens at Torchwood all the time — despite my best efforts. If even  _Jack_  warns you not to get into a shoot-out…!"

As Dave stumbled to the ground — he bit down, hard, on his cheek to hide the pain from his leg.

Hoped Seo wouldn't notice.

But she did.

Of course.

Seo turned back on him, her face bending half-way between anger and worry. "You're hurt," she said.

"Just a primitive projectile weapon injury," Dave said, through his teeth. "Nothing I can't deal with, when I get back to the medi-kit on my ship." He sucked in a sharp breath, as she supported him and helped him limp towards the door. "You shouldn't be here. I had everything under control."

Seo looked around them — at the operating theater. "Yeah, I can see that."

Dave pretended he hadn't heard her.

"If you're all right to walk, we've got to keep moving," Seo said, supporting him and trying to hurry him out of the operating theater, and down a corridor. "If we're at Vedhor, we might as well work out its secrets. Before everyone else wakes up."

Dave disentangled himself from her, walking on his own. And not making a fuss about it — even though it hurt like a bitch.

He was supposed to be Seo's protector, here.

The hero she looked up to and admired.

He couldn't have her thinking he'd gone soft.

"Listen, whatever you think you're trying to prove to me," Seo said, with a sharp eye, as she rushed into the next corridor, "you could have proved it a lot better and with a lot less pain by  _not killing anyone_."

"Had no choice," said Dave, through his teeth, struggling to keep up the pace. He kept seeing knocked-out lizard guards and scientists, along every corridor and inside of every room.

Whatever Seo had done, it had affected every lizard in the whole building.

"Saw what the bastards were doing here," Dave went on. Determined to make her understand. "Had to stop them. Tearing mother away from son."

Seo hesitated, just a little, at this.

Her anger wavering, just a hair.

Then, "Oh, all right. Come on." Seo reached out for his hand, her smooth and silky skin so soft against his own. "Just don't kill anyone else."

They kept going.

Seo pausing to check doors on either side of the corridor — using brute strength to force open the locked ones — always sticking her head inside each room and double checking its contents.

Before withdrawing, and trying the next door.

They had to wander through half the complex — or it felt that way to Dave, with pain searing through his leg with every step — before Seo finally forced open the room she wanted.

"Records," said Seo, helping Dave inside. "At last." She shut the door and barricaded a table in front of it. Then sat Dave down on a seat by some filing cabinets. "You look through paper records for older documents." She turned to a computer terminal, calling up information. "I've got the electronic ones for the new stuff."

"Do we really have time to…?" Dave asked.

"I needed to come here to get information," Seo replied, manipulating the code expertly. "I'm not leaving without it. Now get looking!"

Dave shrugged.

Started digging through the filing cabinet, looking through for any papers or information that might prove useful.

Useful…

Useful…

Problem was… he couldn't find anything useful.

"No wonder they were interested in cutting me open," Dave muttered, flipping through the papers in the filing cabinet. "Seems like every other paper in here is a dissection report." He took one out, then gave a disgusted shake of his head. "Like this. 'Analysis of mammal physiology.'"

Seo twisted her hand against a knob, and the code on her screen disappeared. "I'm getting those, too." In place of the code, a detailed dissection image popped up, followed by a report. "All over the place. You'd think one would be enough, wouldn't you?"

"Maybe they just like slicing up humans for some sadistic..." Dave began. Then paused, squinting at the screen. Then at the paper in his hand. "Wait a second. That doesn't make sense."

Seo glanced over her shoulder, quirking an eyebrow.

Dave raised up his own paper, so it was just beside the screen. "Look at them. The physiology… is different."

Seo grabbed the paper up, and looked between the two records.

"You're right," Seo said. "The lungs in the older document were triangular." She glanced at the computer screen. "In the newer one… they're curved. More like human lungs."

She turned back to the screen, tried pulling up yet another record. This one even more recent.

"And again — the lungs have changed," Seo said. "Gotten more human." She tilted her head to the side, thinking this through. "So the mammals here are changing over time. Every generation more human than the last. Interesting…"

"Wonder what they started out as," Dave said, turning back to the filing cabinet to resume his search. "If they're not really human."

"But they  _are_  human," Seo said, sifting through more data. "I told you. The genetic markers don't lie. Earth DNA."

"Accelerated evolution," Dave said, fishing out another paper. This one theorizing about why the mammals kept changing, through the generations. "Or that's what they call it. That means their DNA is changing, too. The markers could be false."

Seo pursed her lips. "No, that doesn't make sense," she decided. "If they're a shape-changing race, why evolve into humans? Why not the dominant species on  _this_ planet?"

She paused.

As she selected something within the data.

"This should give us clues," Seo said, pulling it up. "A note on this paper about how these people arrived on this planet. In a 'burst of light'."

Dave shrugged. "Sounds like a crashing space ship."

"If so, it's not one from Earth," said Seo. Eyes resting on that note. "It happened over a thousand years ago. Long before human space-travel."

So Dave was right — these weren't humans, after all. Couldn't be.

Or… could they?

Seo glanced through the rest of the document. "No mentions of what the crashed ship looked like or what creatures' original physiology was. You'd think they'd note that somewhere." Seo closed her document, then tried another document. And sighed in frustration. "Dave — you have the older documents. See if you can find it. If these mammals aren't human, I want to know what they are."

Dave paused in his search.

Thinking back… to when he'd first arrived at Vedhor.

That little boy who'd mirrored his mother, picked up her emotions perfectly. And, after her death, had gone completely blank.

"You said… the lizards have a connection to this planet," Dave said. "What if…  _they're_  causing the changes, using that?"

"Breeding to change mammals into humans?" Seo replied. "I still don't see why."

"No, not breeding — using their connection to the planet to change them, over the generations," Dave insisted. "Make them docile! Slaves! That's why Vedhor exists — to manipulate the atmosphere so that the next generation of mammals don't even  _need_  surgery to be emotionless."

"But why into humans, specifically?" Seo said. "Why not into a native species? It doesn't make sense."

Dave wasn't listening, anymore.

His mind was racing.

"It makes perfect sense," Dave told her. "Based on what I've seen. Look, when I first got here, I was with a bunch of strays.  _They_ all had independent emotions."

"I know," said Seo. "That part's not natural. It's a surgical procedure."

"But one little boy  _didn't_  have those," Dave said. " _He_ was blank — without needing surgery! He was just picking up emotions from his mother. Or the other people around him. But when that got removed… he went blank, again. No independent emotions at all."

Seo froze.

Jumped up from her seat, suddenly. Eyes wide. "What did you say?"

"And outside this complex," Dave went on, "I felt a sort of… pull. Like someone was trying to grab all my emotions away from me!" Yes, it all made sense! "This has to be what those lizards are doing! Manipulating the environment around Vedhor in some sadistic plot to… genetically alter…"

He trailed off, as Seo began pacing around the room.

Her head buried in her hands.

"Perfect World," Seo muttered. "Humans. Perfect World. I should have realized!"

"What…?" Dave began.

Seo looked up at him. Her eyes large, and filled with horror.

"That 'burst of light'," she explained, "wasn't a crashing space ship. It was a wormhole. Connecting future to past."

Dave shook his head. "But how could you know…?"

"Because the human beings, on this planet," Seo said. "I know who they are. I…" She looked away. "I thought I was saving them."

Dave stared.

Trying to digest everything she'd just told him.

"You mean… they really  _are_  human beings?" Dave said. "And… and  _you_ …?"

Seo grabbed him by the arm and shushed him.

Listened, carefully.

Dave could hear it, too. The sounds of lizards waking up, in the corridors outside this room. Beginning to talk and mutter and stomp around, again.

They looked at one another.

"Get out?" Dave offered.

Seo helped him to his feet, trying to support him so he didn't have to put too much weight on his injured leg. "Back to my ship," she agreed. "I landed it right outside this complex. Shouldn't be far. Can you run?"

Dave didn't know.

But he could sure as hell try.

He nodded.

Then, just to prove it, shoved himself in front of her, and raised up the barricade. "Let's go."


	13. Chapter 13

"They should still be a little sluggish," Seo whispered to Dave, as they ran — fast as Dave could manage — through corridors. "Should give us an advantage. Just wish I could remember… the way out…"

They turned a corridor.

To discover a swarm of lizard men, in front of them. All heavily armed — some with projectiles. Others with neural stunners.

Seo just managed to drag Dave out of the way, as a bolt from a neural stunner whizzed past them.

"Other way!" Seo said, turning around and racing back the way they'd come.

Dave struggled not to limp, as he stumbled after her. Clenching his teeth past the pain.

"We need to find a medical center," Seo said, glancing back at him. "Some kind of localized pain-reliever, for your leg."

Dave gave a hoarse laugh. "And you didn't think of this back in the operating arena because…?"

"The only pain relievers in this place are for the lizards," Seo snapped. "Not set up for humans. They could kill you — but at this point…"

"Captain!" shouted one of the lizard guards. "This way! Pain, leaking out in abundance."

"…you've got more chance of living without the pain, than with it," Seo concluded. She waggled a finger at him. "Stay here. Don't move a muscle."

Then forced open the room closest to her right, and ducked inside.

Leaving Dave all alone, as the guard stepped into sight.

"Found the male!" the guard reported to the others, via radio. He pointed his gun straight at Dave. "Hands where I can see them. I'd rather not mess up the physiological survey with bullets — but I will if I have…!"

The door to the room Seo had ducked inside swung open.

And a blond blur barreled into the guard's side.

The guard's gun clattered to the floor, the two tumbling down to the ground and rolling, each trying to force the other into the weaker position.

Dave scrambled for the gun.

Could already hear the footsteps of the guard's fellows, approaching, as he grabbed it up and adjusted it.

Seo, in a last shove, managed to pin the lizard-guard to the ground. Leaned down straight into his face, and said, in a dangerous whisper, "Help us get out of here. Or this will start getting very nasty, very quickly."

The guard tried to struggle.

But realized… with some alarm… that he couldn't.

"You're… you're… a small female!" the guard protested. "How can you be strong enough to…?"

"Mammals spotted," came a shout from the other end of the corridor. As reinforcements arrived, all armed to the teeth. "Put down the weapon and surrender, or we fire."

Seo glanced back.

Noticing Dave with the gun.

"Dave," Seo sighed. Then, letting the guard go, stood up straight and raised her hands. "It's all right. No need to shoot — we'll come quietly."

The guard who'd previously been pinned to the ground got to his feet. Made a grab to restrain Seo.

And Dave, with one shot, got the bastard clean through the head.

"Keep your hands off her," Dave warned the lizards.

Seo spun on him. Eyes blazing.

"You stupid…!" Seo hissed.

"Open fire!" shouted the Captain of the guard.

Dave dropped to the ground, forcing Seo down alongside him. Bullets whizzed over their heads.

"That was brilliant, Dave," Seo muttered, tapping on the floor. She nodded, suddenly, and yanked one of the floor tiles away, to reveal a tunnel of ducting. Reached out and yanked Dave through it.

They dropped down, hitting the ground hard.

Dave groaned, trying to climb to his hands and feet. But before he could, Seo managed to jab an injection of something into his leg.

Something… that made the pain feel better.

Almost instantly.

"Not the safest thing for humans, but it should ease the pain," said Seo. "At least, until it takes full effect and it's too numb for you to walk." She pulled him back to his feet. "It'll kill you if we don't get you looked over soon, of course." Spun around, dragging him along behind her. "But  _I'll_  have killed you long before that, Mr. Trigger-Happy!"

That was the problem with Seo.

Do something nice for her, take all the risk and break into Vedhor — even save her life! — and somehow, she was still angry at him.

"They'd have killed us both the moment I put down that gun," Dave argued, rushing after her. "I was protecting you."

Without missing a step in her run, Seo snatched the gun from him and threw it away. "That's you all over, isn't it? When in doubt, reach for the nearest weapon! Start killing people! Because that'll solve everything!"

"I'm reaching for weapons," Dave countered, "to save your life!"

The guards were already behind them.

And — being lizards — could see better in these dark tunnels than either Seo or Dave.

"Save my life?!" Seo paused a moment, fumbling around in the dark. Then grabbed a ladder that had been fastened to the wall, and began to climb. Dave close behind. "You nearly got us both killed! They only opened fire because you provoked them."

"And if you believe that, you'll believe anything," Dave muttered.

Seo grabbed for the manhole cover, overhead. Unscrewed it. "I'm sorry?!"

Sunlight blazed down into the tunnel. Blinding them both, for a few seconds — both squinting to see what they were heading into.

"Just… stop being so squeamish about killing!" Dave insisted, as he began to make out the shape of the area just outside the complex, inside Vedhor. "Yes, I picked up a gun and started killing those sons-of-bitches, when I got here. And yes, when they threatened you, I did it again."

Seo, with a disgusted sigh, pulled herself out of the tunnel.

"But I don't do it just to impress you," Dave snapped, as she gave him a hand and helped pull him out into the open. "I do it because it's right. They're evil — they deserve to die. And if a gun's the right weapon for the job, then I grab it."

He could hear the sound of the advancing guards in the tunnel, behind them, coming closer and closer…

And slammed down the manhole cover, screwing it back on, tight.

Then realized… Seo was positively fuming at him.

"And what if  _I_  was the right weapon for the job?" Seo whispered, yanking him up by his wrist, so they were unbearably close. She glared right into his eyes. "Would you use  _me_?"

Dave couldn't answer.

His brain suddenly swimming, as that psychic pull on his mind returned.

Thousands of tiny tugs, swarming around his mental landscape, all tearing at him to try to open him up and expose him to the world.

"Until you know what it's like to be used as a gun," said Seo, shoving him away from her, "you don't dare pick one up and start killing people without a second thought! How would  _you_  feel if someone forced  _you_  to kill…?!"

She stopped, as Dave grabbed his head, doubling over.

Barely able to hold on.

"Are you all right?" Seo grabbed him around the waist, to stop him sliding to the floor. "What's wrong? No — don't answer that, we don't have time."

Began to drag him away.

"You'll be fine, promise!" Seo assured him. "Just get you away from here. Before the effects of that drug really kick in."

"It's… so…" Dave felt the tendrils tugging deep down into his psyche, and barely managed to bat them away. "Don't you feel that?"

"Feel what?" said Seo. Glancing around herself. "Must be a human thing. I don't feel…"

She stopped, in her tracks. Holding Dave a little tighter — almost protectively — as she stared at the sight in front of her.

Dave peered through the bright light and struggled to focus on the outside world, past the terrible force at work inside his head.

And made out the trouble.

Guards, on all sides.

At least fifty, at a guess.

Followed soon after by the group coming up from the tunnel — which had been chasing them since inside the complex.

"It's all right — we surrender," Seo assured them. "No threat, no guns." Her voice slipped a little lower. "Just a lot of disgust for what you've done here. Turning normal people into your puppets!"

But they weren't holding off shooting because of Seo.

Dave could see that.

They were waiting for the Captain of the Guard, now advancing from where he and the others had crawled out of that tunnel. Getting orders.

"Shoot to kill," said the Captain. "They're hopeless cases."

"No, wait!" came the order, from behind them. As Chief Analyzer Pokot pushed through to the front, just in front of Seo and Dave. His fascination seeping into the air — just a trickle he couldn't contain. "Don't kill the male. I mean, just look at the other mammals! He hasn't been lobotomized, but he's still… resisting, somehow."

"Resisting…" Seo repeated, glancing back down at Dave.

He could practically see the racing of her mind, through her eyes. Formulating some brilliant theory.

"And the female?" the guards asked.

"Separate them and kill her," said Pokot. "I can learn the secret of her strength post-mortem."

Seo clung to Dave a little tighter, as the guards advanced.

Leaned down, and whispered, "Whatever you're resisting… let it in."

Dave shook his head.

"Can't," he insisted. "Can't… let the bastards… get my mind!"

The guards were coming closer.

And Dave didn't have a gun.

No way to protect her, and so little time left…

"Trust me," Seo whispered into his ear. "If you want me safe… let it in. Please."

A pause.

"But don't kill anyone," she added, quickly.

Dave couldn't think enough to know what she'd figured out. But as the guards began to manhandle him away from her… so they could get a clear shot… he had no other options.

He stopped resisting the force pulling at his mind.

And let everything inside.


	14. Chapter 14

 

The guards let Seo go, as the first skull-scarred human leapt at them.

But didn't have time to shoot, as a second human raced for the guards — followed by a third human, a fourth, a fifth…

And soon a whole mob, the entirety of the Vedhor prisoners, all throwing themselves at the guards. Fists punching with raw fury and crazed desperation, tearing the guards away from Seo with everything the mob had in them.

Dave didn't get his mind taken.

No.

He could feel, now… he was letting everything get pulled out of his mind and reabsorbed by all the people around him. Everything he remembered about his own childhood, all the fear and pain of being taken away from his family and raised and abused by alien slavers. All the hardship he face, afterwards. And that one desire, above all others, to save Seo.

He'd do anything for her.

"That's it," Seo told him, finally able to get free from her captors. She sprinted over to him, finally giving him a gentle smile. "Just don't force them to kill. I've lived through that nightmare before."

Dave suddenly found himself able to think, again. Able to stand on his own, walk like normal, even reason things through completely calmly. All his pain and anger spread too thin among these others to bother him, now.

"I'm… turning them into puppets," Dave realized. "Human beings. I'm forcing them to do things just by thinking about it."

Just like the lizards had done — forcing the humans into slavery.

Just as Seo said that people had done to her.

"Yes, well, it wasn't my first choice of escape," Seo said, leading him through the mob and across the landscape of pens and cages. "But it  _did_  prove that I was right about their origins. Perfect World."

"Perfect World?" said Dave.

Seo didn't clarify.

Just tugged his hand a little tighter, as they both picked their way through the wild, fighting mob. Dave could hear shots in the distance, fired from lizard guards desperate to stop the crowd. But the shots soon died down, as the guards were overwhelmed by the Vedhor prisoners.

"My ship's just ahead!" Seo told Dave, as they rounded a corner and headed towards one of the out-walls surrounding the perimeter of Vedhor. "When we're in there, we can heal your leg and drain that nasty drug, and then…"

She stopped.

As she stared at the empty space, just ahead of her.

"It's gone!" Seo cried. She shook her head. "But how could…?"

The sky overhead clouded over, crackling with the rumble of thunder. A strong wind surged up as if from nowhere… and a floating pod with wings drifted overhead, a distinct insignia on its side.

"Weather Patrollers," Seo said.

The humans around them responded to the changes in the weather like a flock of frightened animals, cowering from the elements. Dave could feel the thousand tugs and pulls withdrawing from his mind, and all the pain from his leg suddenly flared up, like new.

As the pod drifted down from the air.

Straight towards them.

 _Weather Patrollers_ , Seo had called them.

Dave's eyes scanned the perimeter. Landing on the solution, and doing his best to lunge at it. "Space ship or not," Dave said, rushing fast as he could with his leg still shot up, "we've got a way out."

And pulled himself into the driver's seat of the idling van-hopper, parked by the wall. Must have been abandoned back when the riot first began, and the humans had torn the driver from his seat.

Seo grinned.

Raced over to the passenger seat, beside Dave. "Brilliant!"

"Well, this thing's supposed to hop," said Dave, starting to poke at the controls. "Let's see if it can hop high enough to clear that wall."

Seo tore the top off the control panel, and began yanking at wires. "It will when I'm through with it!"

"Freeze!" shouted a voice outside, "and get out of the van!"

Dave gave a quick glance back. This time, the order hadn't come from one of the guards. It had come from one of the lizards pouring out of that pod — all in sleek uniforms and carrying surprisingly high-powered guns. "That van can't clear the fence, and we've secured the gates. There's nowhere you can go."

"Want to bet?" Seo said, connecting the last two wires together.

The entire hopper surged into life, lurching forwards and hopping towards the wall. With another lurch, it sprung high into the air — and skimmed past the top of the wall encircling Vedhor.

The Vedhor guards opened fire. As the Weather Patrollers shouted something at them — which Dave didn't quite catch.

Dave did his best to dodge bullets, swerving the hopper to get them away.

"The mine field," Dave said, trying to dig his map out of his pocket. But the shower the lizards had given him and the other Vedhor prisoners, back when he'd first arrived, had drenched the thing straight through.

"Doesn't exist," Seo replied, punching buttons to make the van hopper lose height and gain distance with every hop. "Jack just said that to get a copy of the map." She pointed in front of them. "Now get back to town. If Jack doesn't give you something, soon, that painkiller will put you into a catatonic state. And I have no desire to see you end your days like that!"

* * *

"Cease firing!" one of the Weather Patrollers commanded the guards, irritated. "Hit the wrong system, and you'll blow them both sky high."

"Doesn't matter," said the Captain of the guard, aiming at the van. "We want them dead, anyways."

"We need the girl alive!" the Weather Patroller Commander shouted, as he emerged from the pod. "Cease fire! All of you!"

The Vedhor guards all lowered their guns. Unable to override Commander Yxpress, of the Weather Patrollers.

Just watched the van hop away, into the rain.

And out of sight.

"I had them in my sights!" the Captain of the Guards insisted, turning on Commander Yxpress. "I could have killed those damn talking pet-rejects, and stopped them getting out there. If they can speak, they could tell…"

"Who would believe them?" said one of the Weather Patrollers.

"The whole planet will be looking for them, now," said another. "We'll find them, sooner or later. Just you wait and see."

Commander Yxpress raised up a hand.

And everyone quieted, in an instant.

"None of that matters," Yxpress told those around him. Lowered his hand, eyes scanning the area nearby. "Guards and other Weather Patrollers. Get this facility back under control." Fixed his eyes back on the Captain of the Guards. "And you, Captain. The object that appeared out of nowhere, from which the female mammal emerged. The one that was described to us, over the radio. Where is it?"

The Captain of the Guards restrained his anger.

And re-engaged his emotional controls.

"Yes, Commander," the Captain of the Guards said, turning sharply to lead him to it. "Right away, Commander."

* * *

 

"Yes, I was only just made aware of the object, myself," said Pokot, as he joined Commander Yxpress in examining the part-tree, part-operating table, part-fence object that had appeared — as if from nowhere — inside the Vedhor compound. "I would have known about it, sooner, but one of the mammals accidentally hit our psychic controls and knocked everyone inside the shielded complex out. The female, I believe."

"It wasn't an accident," said Yxpress.

"No, now that I see how she arrived… I suppose it wouldn't be," Pokot agreed. Looking the object over, a little more closely. "It seemed to be trying to blend in with the Vedhor fence, but have gotten stuck part-way through. Fascinating technology." Glanced over at Yxpress. "Alien?"

"Naturally," Yxpress replied.

He turned to the rest of the Vedhor command center. Began to call up footage and audio and security logs, all relating to the activities of the two fugitives.

"The Weather Patrollers have been aware of the female for some time," said Yxpress. "We didn't know where on the planet she was, or what she looked like, but she's been stirring up trouble with pro-pets activists. Has been hacking into and concealing our data at the highest level — using it as blackmail, even." He twisted a knob, trying to find footage of the female. "Very nearly forced us to reveal the full truth about the mammals to the public."

"Dangerous and intelligent," Pokot observed. "Then we should get rid of her, soon as possible."

"My orders are to take her alive," said Commander Yxpress. "From the Grand Marshal himself. Apparently, he thinks there might be something… useful about her."

He tried another video file.

Then turned on the Captain of the Guards. "She landed in your base, in plain sight of at least three cameras," he said. "Didn't we capture any image of her, at all?"

"There should be, Commander," said the Captain of the Guards. He redirected the footage to the moment when the object had materialized. "This is the moment the female mammal emerged… from…"

He trailed off.

As, on the footage, the door opened. Shoe-prints in the dust, underneath. But… despite that…

The female didn't appear on the footage.

"She's edited herself out of our footage," Commander Yxpress said, "so we couldn't circulate images of her to the public, so they could help us catch her. Clever."

"It's… impossible," Pokot insisted. "And ridiculous! If you wanted to erase evidence you'd ever appeared, wouldn't it be more sensible to just erase the footage all together? Not edit yourself out?"

"And the male still appears," the Captain of the Guards pointed out. Skipping forwards to demonstrate.

Commander Yxpress took this all in.

"We know what she looks like," said the Captain of the Guards. "Small. Unusually strong for a mammal of her size. Blond furred. Spots on her face."

"And considering she won't dare to use her strength when that might give her away," said Commander Yxpress, "that description would probably describe ten percent of the mammals on this planet's surface."

He thought a bit longer.

Then turned on the Captain of the Guards, and Chief Analyzer Pokot.

"If she's edited the records," Commander Yxpress told them, "then we'll have to rely on eye-witness evidence. I want to know everything. How she arrived. What she did. What she said. What systems she altered. And what she worked out about this place."

He turned to one of his Weather Patrollers, emerging in the doorway.

"And you, Clivonin," Commander Yxpress continued, addressing the Weather Patroller. "Take the image of the male mammal. Circle that around to all the major news centers. If we can't get the female — we'll take her friend. She'll come after him, eventually."


	15. Chapter 15

"Perfect World," Jack repeated. He sat down in the seat across from Seo, shaking his head. "I don't believe it."

Dave, in the meantime, was bandaging up his leg, following the removal of the bullet and the reversal of the lethal numbing solution that Seo had given him, earlier.

Trying to figure out what the hell these two were talking about.

"The Vedhor files said the humans had been changing since they got here," said Seo. "It all fits, Jack. They're the same people! This is where they wound up." She looked away. "This is where I sent them."

"You couldn't have known," Jack argued.

"I should have!" Seo insisted. Bunching her hands into fists. "It was obvious! I just… didn't think!"

Dave sighed. "Either of you two want to explain what's going on?"

They turned to face him.

Neither saying anything, for a while.

"It's… somewhere we went," said Jack, at last. "Right after we left Irkoli, when Seo was trying out her ship. She decided, if she had a time machine, she'd… zip off to the 51st century, and see where I came from."

"Fifty first…?" Dave began. Then decided… on second thought… better not question this. "Fifty first century."

"We didn't make it to my home world, of course," Jack said. And there was a certain amount of relief in his voice, as he said it. "Instead, we landed on one of the planets that had been scooped up by the Perfect World Movement. That's where the whole thing kicked off."

* * *

_Seo had knelt down in the grass, by the crystal-clear pool, holding out some seeds in her hands as the thin-legged, almost-deer-like creature ate from her palm._

_"Having fun?" came Jack's voice, from behind._

_Seo glanced back. Then grinned. "It's beautiful here," she said. "And peaceful. Did you come from a world like this?"_

_The creature looked up from her feeding, and gave a mild scoff._

_Jack just shook his head._

_"Right time, wrong… everything else," Jack told her. For a second, something sad flicked across his face. "Nothing like the Boeshane Peninsula."_

_"His type sets out to destroy and corrupt," the creature said. It stepped back, its legs folding across the double-joint in the knee, and it shook out its slender head, wide, soft eyes fixed on Seo and Jack. "We, on the other hand, believe in a Perfect World. Perfect peace. Perfect unity."_

_"The Perfect World Movement," Jack agreed. He crossed his arms. "I heard all about it, growing up. Never actually saw humans like these putting it in action, before, though."_

_Seo looked the creature up and down. "You used to be human?"_

_"We still are," said the creature, proudly. "Humans who've allowed our chosen world to reshape us."_

_Seo frowned._

_Then looked back to Jack, for explanations._

_"Right around the time I was born, the Perfect World Movement swept through human space," Jack told her. "I heard them. A whole bunch of preachers and zealots, lecturing the colony worlds about how they were evil and humanity was corrupt."_

_"Zealots?!" the creature snapped. "We're not zealots — everything we say is common sense! You're the ones moving out amongst the stars, corrupting and colonizing and terraforming beautiful planets so that they become ugly and functional. I mean, really — a whole planet changed for just a few hundred people?!" The creature shook out its dainty body. "No wonder all the colony worlds turn into squalid cesspools of corruption."_

_Jack didn't seem to mind the criticism of his home._

_Seo wondered if she should get defensive on his behalf, anyways._

_"The result, eventually, was that a bunch of humans settled in the backwaters of known space," said Jack, gesturing at the planet around them, "and genetically adapted_ themselves _to match the_ planet _." He turned back to the deer-like creature. "Like… him."_

_Seo was intrigued._

_Looked around herself, once more, with a new sense of understanding. A new awareness._

_"We have the Perfect World," the creature boasted. It puffed out its chest. "We are the Perfect World."_

_"And there are more planets like this?" Seo asked. She gestured at the creature. "More deer-people?"_

_Jack gave a small chuckle. "All the planets have humans who look different, Seo. It's not just deer-people. They adapt their physiology based on the world."_

_The creature got back up onto four legs. Advanced towards Seo. "Our Movement has settled on numerous worlds," it told her. "Every one unique. Every genetic adaptation original. Who would choose to live on an ugly, barren, overpopulated world — when they can live in beauty and perfection, here, with us?"_

_Jack shrugged. "I think the 'no sex' thing puts people off."_

_Seo raised an eyebrow. "They're celibate?"_

_"It's the only way forwards for our descendants!" said the creature._

_Seo shook her head, with a laugh. "But how can you even_ have _descendants if you never…?"_

_"They've used artificial genetic modification to get this way, Seo," Jack reminded her. "We're not talking evolution, or something that'll stick around. Artificial genetic modification tends to wear off, down the generations, if you make babies the natural way." He shrugged. "So they take vows of celibacy. And genetically manufacture the next generation."_

_"Humanity has overcrowded and destroyed countless worlds through uncontrolled breeding," said the creature. "We, however, have chosen to overcome the temptation that has destroyed the rest of our race. We return to innocence, as in the Garden of Eden. Paradise and purity."_

_"Yeah, it's a great life — if you don't mind genetic therapy and no sex," Jack replied._

_The creature pointed at the sky. "You mock, but look at how many planets we've settled! Our movement is the future. Just visit the Perfect Shining World of Crozia, the Perfect Jeweled World of Persu, even the Perfect Harmonious World of—"_

_The creature stopped._

_A troubled expression passing across its face._

_It turned away. "Well… it's better not to speak of Beautip."_

_"Why?" Seo jumped to her feet. "What happened?"_

_"To the Perfect Harmonious World of Beautip?" The creature shook its head, walking off. "No one knows. Destroyed. Lost. Perhaps decadent colonists like your friend Jack destroyed it with their filth and corruption."_

_Seo turned to Jack._

_Sudden excitement racing through her._

_Jack only had to take one look at her to know… "We're going to find out what happened, huh?"_

_"You bet we are!" Seo replied, racing back to her ship._

* * *

"The Perfect Harmonious World of Beautip," Seo repeated. Leaning against a countertop. She stole a glance at Jack. "You were uneasy the whole time we were there. I remember."

"Dunno," Jack said. "Maybe I got a premonition, or something."

But sounded like he didn't want to go into this.

Dave knew that look, in Jack's eyes. A look of someone who'd been trying to get away from his childhood for so long, that just getting  _near_ his birth-planet again was…

…well…

Dave knew  _he_  sure as hell would never return to  _his_  home colony planet, again.

Not even if someone forced him at gunpoint.

"So… yes," Seo went on, with a sigh, turning back to Dave. "We just went a little ways into the past, and landed on Beautip. And found out the problem."

"The Rachar," Jack added. "Peaceful enough aliens, but they're pessimists. Doomsayers at heart. They'd settled on Beautip, too — no one knows why."

Dave looked between them. "And that was bad because…?"

"Beautip was a telepathic planet," said Seo. "The whole planet reacting to the strongest minds on its surface. When the Rachar settled there, in droves, and decided the planet was miserable… it  _became_  miserable."

"And when they said the planet would end…" Jack continued.

Seo and Jack exchanged a look.

Both remembering.

"Telepathic planet," Dave repeated. As he suddenly began to work it all out. "And you said that the people adapted themselves to the planets they inhabited!"

Jack pointed at him. "Got it in one."

"The humans on Beautip looked like… big, floating puffballs with faces," said Seo. "But the most important change they made to themselves was the change to their minds — to hook themselves up to the planet itself. They relied on it — a sort of hive-mind."

"The adults could control it," said Jack. "The kids… well, they'd built in a little telepathic mimicry instinct, for kids. So they'd pick up on their parents' emotions, until they could grow up enough to join the hive-mind, properly, and share emotions with everyone else."

Dave remembered the boy with the blank stare.

And shuddered.

"The Rachar destroyed the planet," said Jack, "and dragged down most of the genetically modified humans, with it. Eventually, the Rachar left. But the humans — by modifying their bodies so they were reliant on that planet — couldn't. And most were too mired in the lingering pessimism of the Rachar to even  _want_ to save themselves." He glanced over at Seo. "But she discovered the mimicry trick, in the kids."

"I tricked the kids into latching onto  _my_ emotions," Seo explained. "Then opened up a wormhole to another planet, which had a similar telepathic ambience, and sent the kids through."

"To this planet's past," Dave realized.

As it all began to make sense to him.

"They must have shown up here, been overwhelmed by the emotional telepathy of the native life-forms," Jack reasoned, "and become completely docile."

"They were just kids!" Seo chided herself. "I should have thought — when they'd shown up here, they'd have looked, to the natives, like… emotionless animals. And when those few kids grew up, there wouldn't have been enough of them to influence the group mind on this planet."

"So these lizard men turned them into slaves," Dave concluded.

Seo thought this over. "I doubt that's how it started," she admitted. "They call the humans 'pets'. And considering what those kids were like, back then… the lizard people probably thought they  _were_ pets. After all, they couldn't look after themselves, and — at that time — they didn't even look humanoid."

"Until they grew up and started having kids the natural way," Jack pointed out. "And the genetic alterations gradually wore off, over the centuries. Turning them slowly back into normal human beings."

The so-called 'accelerated evolution'.

Which was nothing of the sort.

"To tell you the truth," Jack continued, thinking it over, "these lizards probably wouldn't have figured out that the humans were even  _capable_  of independent emotions, until there were enough to make a difference to the telepathic shell of this planet. It must have taken… generations."

"And that's when they set up Vedhor," Dave understood. "To make sure the  _lizards_  controlled the planet, not the humans."

Jack nodded.

"But why can  _I_  pick up emotions so easily, here, while you two can't?" said Dave.

"Well, you're gonna have a lot of descendants, some day," said Jack. "Some crazier than others. Beautip was founded by a Korjensky. Your brain pattern must vaguely fit the bill."

Seo brushed some hair out of her face, angrily. "This is all my fault," Seo chided herself. "I should have checked, before I sent those kids here, to see what this planet was like. I should have—!"

"If you'd delayed anymore than you did, those kids would have died with the rest of their planet," Jack argued. "There was no way you could have known, Seo."

Seo didn't answer.

Just bunched her hands into fists.

"Whatever I have to do," Seo promised, "whatever risks I have to take — I'm going to set this right." Her eyes met all the others, in the room. "I swear it."


	16. Chapter 16

The first time Seo saw the footage of Dave as a wanted terrorist, plastered across all forms of media, she nearly jumped out of her skin.

"…dangerous stray — a terrorist — who, unprovoked, actually opened fire on a group of citizens," said the TV reporter. "We have eye-witness footage from one citizen who was hospitalized for his injuries."

Seo stared as the footage cut to the local hospital, with reporters interviewing all the victims of Dave's initial shooting spree, at Vedhor. And then moved on to the grieving widows, who were all calling for justice to be had.

That was when Madgella turned off the TV.

"You know, there are days, Sunshine, when I just don't understand the world," Madgella told her. Stroking her hair, absently. "Killing all those people… leaving all those widows…"

Even if Seo had been in a position where she could speak to Madgella… she'd have nothing to say.

Not to this.

"Pwouia told me I should go visit some of those widows," said Madgella. "Tell them how to move on, and survive past the depression." Her tail twitched, with a breath of nervousness lingering in the air around her. "Because… she thinks I know the answer to that."

Seo gave her a kind smile.

And reached out for her, to give her some love and comfort and support.

Madgella didn't recognize the expression. Wasn't used to people reaching out a hand in comfort.

But somehow… she felt the love and comfort and support. She felt the empathy Seo extended to her, and she felt that Seo had felt that same loss, too. Just recently.

Madgella put her hand on top of Seo's. "I don't know anything about the world, or myself, or how to go on," Madgella said. "But I know how to take care of you." She pat Seo's hand. "And as long as you still need me, Sunshine… I'll go on. It's what keeps me going."

That evening, Madgella found herself buried in nightmares.

Provoked by the news of Dave's shooting spree.

Seo felt the turbulent emotions from where she was working, trying to take down the system and set things right. Heard the storm beginning, outside. Wind howling through the trees, rain splattering across the glass rooftop like a hundred thousand teardrops.

She sealed up her work, and went upstairs.

Woke Madgella from the terrible dreams.

Calmed her.

"Sunshine, I can't… I don't know how…!" Madgella said. The storm raging outside showing that she hadn't yet lapsed out of hysteria. "They were all dead. Every single one of them. Dead! So much blood… residual emotions burned into the walls like screams…!"

Seo wrapped Madgella into a hug.

Remembering that moment when Elizabeth had turned on her, and Seo had realized… she'd saved the wrong person. She'd killed a hero, and replaced her with a madwoman.

Mom was gone forever.

And the thought of it tore something inside of her apart.

"What… are you…?" Madgella asked, confused by the 'hug' — a gesture unfamiliar to this culture.

But Seo used the close contact to pour calmness and love and support, just a bit, inside Madgella's head. To tiptoe around the edges of Madgella's psyche and banish the nightmares.

Madgella couldn't sense what Seo was doing — not on a conscious level.

But she relaxed into the hug, as she seemed to understand its purpose.

Seo fell asleep beside Madgella, that night.

Exhausted and overwhelmed by the effort of calming this thoroughly troubled woman.

* * *

Dave didn't get a chance to talk to Seo, for a while.

Tried to get into the house, at night, like he'd done to talk to her before — but found she was always busy. Always hard at work, trying to undo the mistake she'd made by bringing those humans to this planet.

And when he donned his lizard-disguise, and tried interacting with Madgella to check-up on Seo… he discovered that Madgella was worse than ever, now, too.

"I have to train her," Madgella explained, as she tried to get Seo to go down on her hands and knees and scrub a floor. "Or the Weather Patrollers will find her and ship her off to Vedhor. There are murderers at Vedhor. Haven't you heard? A horrible terrorist who kills people without a second thought!"

"There are  _a lot_  of murderers at Vedhor," Dave said, through his teeth.

"But when the Weather Patrollers come for me — they're not coming for my Sunshine!" Madgella insisted. "They're not going to take her away and shoot her! Because Sunshine needs me. She…"

Madgella turned back to Seo.

Who was vehemently  _not_  doing what Madgella wanted her to.

"Oh, good Sunshine, good!" Madgella praised, seeing the turned-over suds bucket and the broom snapped in two. "You managed to get that rag covered in water! What a precious little thing you are! Have a treat!"

It disgusted Dave, to see Seo treated like that.

How  _dare_  Madgella even  _think_  of…?!

But Madgella was right, in one respect.

The Weather Patrollers were watching them. Dave could feel it, like a niggling presence at the back of his mind. A little warning light that screamed, "Danger! Danger!"

The Weather Patrollers were coming.

And if Madgella acted any more crazy… they'd grab her up. And, by pure accident, find Seo there as well. Just ready and waiting for them.

Either they'd kill Seo, flat out.

Or… if they'd seen her space ship… if they knew just how smart she really was.

Dave shuddered.

He couldn't stand the thought of Seo being drugged, restrained, and then dragged off to Vedhor as some kind of… experimental guinea pig.

He sat down at his ship, one evening.

Thinking about the danger.

And decided.

"Fall back plan," Dave said. Staring at the exact part of his ship he needed. "If worst comes to worst."

He grabbed for it.

Inputting all the correct settings he needed.

"Won't ever let them hurt you, Seo," Dave promised. "Not even if it means doing this."


	17. Chapter 17

"…and I've been keeping my lizard disguise on, in public," Dave assured Seo, when he finally managed to get a private evening with her. He took off the disguise-gizmo she'd given him when he'd first arrived on this planet — and showed it to her, by way of demonstration. "And been keeping my emotions suppressed and in check, like you said. Doesn't matter if the whole world's out looking for me; I'm safe."

Seo was trying to apply herself to her work — tirelessly, with scarcely a moment even for sleep.

Just as Dave had seen her do, ever since she'd found out the truth about the humans on this planet. And how she was linked to their fate.

He hated it.

No more snuggles. No more kisses.

No more anything.

Just her ignoring him, and him trying to figure out how to get her past their argument, so he could get back to the kissing and touching and good relationship stuff.

"Disguise," Dave repeated. Dropping it right in front of her, on top of her work, just to make sure she'd see it. "Like you said. Remember?"

He hoped she'd get the point — that he was doing what she said — and start falling into his arms like she'd done, before.

"I heard," said Seo, brushing the disguise away.

And continuing to ignore him.

Which left Dave struggling to try to find something he could say to her.

"Kind of funny, though," said Dave, basically because he couldn't think of anything else, right now, "seeing my face all over the place as an evil murdering maniac. Some people!"

Seo went very still.

And, without even looking back to him — in a very low voice — "Madgella hasn't been the same, since you shot all those people."

"They were oppressing humans," Dave said, sternly. "Tearing apart families. They deserved to die."

Seo spun around on her chair. "And that's still how you see the universe, isn't it?" she hissed. "Even after the Autons and Professor Trinch and all those humans betraying you, after you escaped that Rechortia — you'd still rather gun down an alien like me than gun down a human being."

Oh, great.

Somehow, even when they were talking about normal things like alien oppressors or slavery or planets plagued by tyranny — Seo could always twist it into some critique of their relationship.

And with Seo in a mood like this — still bitter with herself about sending these humans into slavery in the first place — she was worse about that than ever before.

"Not everything I do is always about you," Dave told her. "Believe it or not, when I was gunning down those bastards to stop them killing innocents and operating on their brains — I wasn't asking myself what you'd think!"

"Obviously not," Seo muttered, eyes narrowing on him.

He threw his arms up in the air. "I just can't win with you, can I?" Dave snapped. "I kill some lizards to save your life, and you accuse me of just pulling out guns to show off. But if I try to kill some lizards to save people who have nothing to do with you — suddenly, I should have been thinking of you, instead!"

Seo didn't answer him.

"So, as far as I'm concerned — there's no winning with you," Dave decided. "Doesn't matter what I do, you'll always find some reason to get angry."

Seo gave a long, frustrated sigh. "I'm not angry," she said, "about why you're killing people. I'm angry that you're killing them in the first place!"

"And how else do you expect me to protect you?" Dave challenged. "Because as far as I'm concerned, the rest of the universe can go to hell, as long as you're safe."

Zed-square had used a line like that on this girl, back on Lyron Perseus. Made the girl practically drag him into bed with her.

Seo, on the other hand…

Simply turned away from him in disgust.

"I don't expect you to protect me," Seo said, returning to her work. "I don't need you to protect me. What I need is for you to stop killing people in my name!" She clenched her hand into a fist. "And if you sentence the universe to destruction on my behalf… I will hunt you down to the ends of time, David Korjensky. See if I don't."

Trust him to have found the only person around who'd hear him talk about the whole universe going to hell — and take him completely literally.

"Oh, come on," Dave said. "I'm not some kind of villain who's about to…!"

A sound, from upstairs.

And both of them fell deathly silent, at once.

Waiting until Madgella settled back down to sleep. And they could get back to their fight.

It took what felt like hours.

But eventually, Seo seemed to think… enough time had passed since Madgella's restless spell that it was safe for them to start up, again.

"That's down to you," Seo hissed, rounding on him and pointing upstairs, towards Madgella's bedroom. "Madgella's nightmares keep coming back, since she saw what you did. She can barely sleep!"

"So what?" said Dave. "So I made your enslaver a little more unhappy. Sounds like good news to me."

"Good news?!" Seo seethed. Looked like she was barely stopping herself from decking him. "You shot up Vedhor. Didn't save a single human life. Almost killed me! Turned countless people into widows. And almost drove Madgella insane! How is that 'good news'?"

"Seo, I don't give a damn about Madgella!" Dave retorted. "As far as I'm concerned, after the way she's subjugated and tried to manipulate you — she's just as worthy of a bullet through the brain as anyone I shot at Vedhor!"

For a few long moments, Seo couldn't even speak.

Just staring at him, like she couldn't quite believe what he'd just said.

"Get out," Seo whispered.

Dave blinked. "What?"

"Get out!" Seo said, a little louder. Grabbed him up and shoved him back to the front door, viciously. "Get out of this house and off this planet and don't you ever come back."

"Seo, what are you…?" Dave tried, struggling against her.

But she overpowered him.

And bodily shoved him out the front door.

"I can't believe I thought you'd changed," Seo said. "All your pretty words and desire to fight injustice — and it was all just a lie to get me into bed with you!" She gripped the doorknob so tight, her knuckles turned white. "Strip that away… and you're still just the same distrustful, uncaring murderer I first met."

Dave stared at her. "But… I…!"

Seo slammed the door in his face.

Leaving Dave a little stunned, out in the cold and dark, not sure what to do.

"I… did it all for you," Dave said, in a small voice. "I gave up everything for…!"

But she was already gone.

Gone.


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the update delay. Things kind of went a little insane, on my side. Then I got absorbed in writing my new independent story, and forgot to update this one. So... have an extra long segment, today!
> 
> (Also, I was putting off posting this chapter because I don't really like it that much.)
> 
> Enjoy!

Dave trudged back to his ship.

Trying to think himself out of this pit.

What had happened? One minute, everything was fine. Then Dave tried to do one nice thing for her — break into Vedhor and give her answers — and somehow, by saving her life…

"She's… just… crazy!" Dave decided. "I mean, sure, I killed some lizards. But it's not like I went around murdering humans or anything. It's not like the lizards I killed were even innocent!" He felt himself shaking with rage — and, on an impulse, turned on a nearby tree. And kicked it. Hard. "I was just trying to protect you, Seo! Why can't you see that? All the things you hate me for — I did them for  _you_!"

He was about to kick the tree, again.

But froze, as he heard a familiar sound behind him.

The sound of a primitive projectile gun being cocked.

"The talker," came the familiar voice of Ovarti, the Stray Catcher. "And the most wanted pet on this planet."

Dave tried to play it cool.

"Ovarti, it's me," Dave assured him. "You remember? We met up at the market, the other day. I wished you good luck with…"

Which was the precise moment that Dave realized… he wasn't wearing his disguise.

He'd left it on Seo's desk.

And hadn't picked it up, when she kicked him off her planet.

"You just keep talking, stray," said Ovarti. "I've seen lots of variations in pets. Your ability to talk doesn't scare me." He grinned. "Doesn't stop me shooting you for the reward, either."

Dave could recognize an 'I'm-gonna-kill-you' gloat a mile away.

And this was pretty-much as 'gloat' as they came.

Which was why Dave was already running at the Stray-Catcher, when that gun began to fire. Grabbing the lizard by the arm and shoving it upwards, so the shot went into the air.

Elbowed the lizard in the stomach, and ducked just before Ovarti had a chance to properly grab him up and restrain him.

"You like to have a few drinks, every evening," Dave recalled. Perks of being undercover — he knew all kinds of dirt like this. "Explains your reaction time. Way too slow."

Ovarti recovered his balance, and swung a punch at Dave — to the head. Dave staggered back, cursing himself for not seeing that coming.

But still dodged out of the way of Ovarti's next shot.

"You won't escape, mammal," said Ovarti. "I'll keep shooting all night if I have to." He aimed the gun again. "Can't miss more than—"

Dave leapt at him.

Socked him in the jaw, then grabbed the gun for himself. Turning it on Ovarti. "And how many others like me have you killed, huh?" Dave challenged. "Always the same with you alien scumbags. Getting your kicks by killing humans!"

Ovarti suddenly froze.

Hands raised.

"You don't wanna kill me, little mammal," Ovarti said. His brain clearly scrambling for some excuse. "I… I… I've got your friends locked up in the van, back there!" He gestured at the hopper van he'd been driving. "Lots of lovely strays, all waiting. Female strays! Naked with big…" He mimed gigantic breasts. "You let me live, mammal, and I'll give them to you. All of them!"

Dave glanced over at the van.

Snorted.

"Yeah, sure you do," Dave said. "And I'm the Draconian Emperor."

"I'll prove it!" Ovarti pleaded. Tried to run over, but Dave kicked him back to the ground.

So he was kneeling, before him.

Gun at the lizard's temple.

"Women," Dave repeated. "There was only one woman I ever wanted. And she…!"

He stopped himself.

Decided he wasn't going to think about this, now.

"What did I expect to happen?" Dave muttered. "That's life for you. You're born. Meet someone. Give up everything for them. They betray you. You shoot a lying bastard and move on." Gave a bitter laugh. "Why did I expect this to be any different?"

Ovarti was actually trembling, now.

"Please," he begged. "Please, don't!"

A drizzle started up, around them. Each cool droplet of water splashing across Dave's face… like a jolt running through him.

As he stood there.

Gun against Ovarti's head.

And… didn't pull the trigger.

"I'll tell you anything," said Ovarti. "Betray anyone! Give you anything!"

He still didn't press down that trigger.

Just looking at Ovarti… as if for the first time. Not an alien, not some villain who had to be wiped out, not a mission to be accomplished or a means to an end or even someone who deserved it… but as a…

"You're a coward," Dave said.

The drizzle came a little harder.

And Dave actually lowered the gun, as he began to laugh. "A coward!" Dave shouted. "Weak-skinned, easily corrupted, do-whatever-you're-told, drunk and self absorbed coward! You can't even pack a punch without downing a few for some courage, first."

Ovarti wasn't sure how to react to this.

His fear rippled through the air like frost.

"And to think — when I first showed up, here, I was ready to shoot you between the eyes!" Dave said. "Some drunken nobody. No family. No friends. The only person you can get to hit on you is Jack, and he's human!"

He shook his head.

Clicked the safety back on the gun.

And shoved it away, in his back pocket.

"Kill you? What's the point?" said Dave. "You're not a scary alien threat. You're just a shit." He sighed. "So fuck off and leave me alone."

Ovarti looked like he couldn't quite believe his luck.

Stumbled to his feet, breathing heavily, the drizzle drying up in an instant.

And, in a flash, he scrambled away. Running as fast as he could from the dangerous alien terrorist whom the news had warned them all about.

Leaving Dave alone.

With an alien gun.

And his own thoughts.

"Didn't kill  _him_ ," Dave muttered to himself. Turning around, to head back to his space ship. "But nope. That doesn't count for you, Seo. Not unless it's defending your honor, or right in the spotlight. Otherwise… to you… I'm just as much a shithead as he is."

"I never said that."

Dave started, violently.

Spun around.

There she was. Standing in the moonlight, her hair shimmering in the silver light. Her skin soft and silky and perfect.

"You forgot this," Seo said, with a shrug, displaying the lizard-disguise-gizmo he'd abandoned on her desk. "And with everyone and their best friend hunting for you… well… I might have wanted you off this planet. But I preferred you to be alive when you left it."

She tossed him the gizmo.

And he caught it.

Not sure what to say to her.

"You're… here," Dave muttered. Then chided himself — stupid, STUPID! She  _knows_  she's here! What is wrong with you, Dave?!

"Yes."

"You… saw…?"

"Not all of it — but I can guess how it began," Seo replied. "He tried to kill you. You twisted the situation to your advantage. Got him on his knees." She shrugged. "I started running when I heard the desperate pleading. Figured you needed me around to stop you." She met his eyes with her own. "As it turns out… you didn't."

Dave tried to reply to this.

But found all he could do was swallow, hard.

And hope she didn't notice he was trembling.

"I think… I always expect things to be instantaneous," Seo reflected, tucking some hair behind her ears. "The epiphany that turns a murderer into a saint. The adventure that makes someone who views aliens as monsters suddenly realize that they're all just people. The sudden smoking gun that makes a world based on slavery and emotional subjugation come to its senses and let the humans go." She scuffed her shoe against the ground, a little bashful. "That moment you fall in love, and everything's supposed to be perfect. No rows. No disagreements. All that."

"You… do?" Dave said.

Realizing, after he said it, that it was yet another really stupid thing to say.

No wonder she didn't love him anymore, when he kept saying stupid things like this!

"But maybe… some things take time," Seo admitted. Giving a nervous smile. "Maybe it's not always one moment of epiphany, and then happily ever after. Maybe… it takes work and time and patience."

"And you're not patient," Dave said, before he could stop himself.

Seo looked at him, askance. Then giggled. "No, I guess I'm not." Stepped a little closer to him. "Not a saint, either. Or some phenomenally clever heroine who knows everything about everything."

Dave hesitated.

Realized she was looking at him like she expected him to say something.

And he knew — if he said the right thing, now, he could get it all back. But if he slipped up… said something else stupid…

He'd lose her forever.

"Um…" Dave said.

"That's all?" Seo shook her head, with another laugh, as she stepped towards him. "You always say the sweetest things when you're terrified of upsetting me!"

"You're… perfect," Dave put in, hurriedly. Struggling to find something else he could say to make her happy. "And flawless and right — always right — about everything and I—"

"Dave?" Seo cut in.

Dave paused.

Wondering if he'd just said something else really stupid.

"Stop lying," said Seo, racing over and grabbing him up, "and shut up."

Then, just to make sure, she kissed him.

A long, passionate kiss.

The kind that made sparks fly through your mind and bits of him tingle. The kind that made her melt into him, and made him reach out to hold her a little closer.

He'd done it!

She loved him, again!

(What had he said? What had he…? Oh, screw it. Long as she kept this up, it didn't matter!)

They broke away, both gasping for air.

"It wasn't anything you said," Seo corrected him. "You didn't kill Ovarti because you finally saw him as a person. You had a gun at his head, and didn't pull the trigger." She shot him a mischievous smile. "And as for your second thought… I  _do_  plan to keep this up. All night."

Dave blinked. "You… read my thoughts!"

Seo responded by grabbing his head again.

And dragging him into another long, passionate kiss.

As he heard her voice, so distinct, playful and teasing as it lingered just along the edges of his thoughts—

_Told you I wasn't perfect._

He felt her hands tangle in his hair. As, for no reason, he had a flash of a scene from earlier… of Seo shouting at him that he simply wanted to sleep with her!

"That's not true," Dave said, breaking off from her kiss. "I don't just want sex! I want you because… you're you, and… you… you have a great personality!"

Then cursed himself out inside his head.

Because that was the kind of thing you only said about ugly girls.

"I mean…!" Dave tried again.

"Aw, you're so cute when you're clueless," Seo said. Leaned in, and whispered, into his ear — "You wouldn't be averse to it, though. Right?"

And any self restraint vanished in an instant.

"My ship," he said, practically dragging her off. "It's close. We—"

Seo yanked him back — far stronger — in the other direction. "I'm sorry? You expect us to go at it on the dirty metal floor of your space ship? Real hopeless romantic, you are!" She shook her head. "My bedroom. Now!"

* * *

He loved her.

Seo. Who face down monsters even humanity found terrifying — and win. Who had overpowered the Nestene Consciousness. Who had been clever and cunning enough to escape walk into Vedhor and get them both out alive.

She saved planets.

Probably saved galaxies.

Maybe even the whole universe.

"But for all your power," said Dave, into her ear, "only one person can make you feel," he moved, "like this."

Seo cried out, in delight.

Losing herself in him.

* * *

Madgella, from upstairs, suddenly started awake.

Shaken and plagued by nightmares and memories and thoughts of a killer still on the loose — ready to break in here and take everything away from her, again…

She hadn't slept soundly since the day that terrorist had gone on his killing spree.

"Just a dream," Madgella told herself. Trying to settle back down. "A bad dream. Sunshine's asleep, the alarm system's unbreakable — you can't be hearing anyone moving around, downstairs."

But no sooner had she said it… she heard the sound again.

Froze in place, unable to move.

Scarcely able to breathe.

And again! Yes, definitely a noise. Maybe even a cry.

Something was definitely going on, downstairs. People in her house. Just like last time — murderers breaking into her house and trying to kill her. Because they hadn't done the job properly, last time, and now they were here to finish it.

To kill Madgella, too.

To kill…!

"Sunshine!" Madgella leapt to her feet. Realizing… whatever sound was coming from downstairs, it was in the basement. Right around Sunshine's room!

All the noise, all the struggle…!

"Sunshine's being murdered!" Magella said, as she threw on a dressing gown and raced out of her room. Hearing the scuffle more clearly, as she rushed down the steps.

The door was unlocked.

The alarm systems down.

Illegal smuggled information flooding all the datascreens from her computers, and that noise… always that noise…!

Madgella snatched up the biggest knife she could find, in the kitchen.

And ran, fast as she could, down into the basement. Hurrying so fast she nearly tripped over her tail — because her Sunshine was in trouble, and it was all happening all over again, and Madgella wouldn't let it! She wouldn't…!

Madgella flung open the door to Sunshine's room.

"Get away from my pet, you animal!" Madgella shouted, raising the knife over her head. "Or I'll…!"

She stopped.

Froze.

Air crackling with ice around her, as she stared.

There was a male mammal in there. Naked. On top of her sweet little Sunshine, who was also naked. Engaged in some kind of… mating thing.

The problem was… this wasn't just  _any_  male mammal.

Madgella recognized this face from the news.

"You!" Madgella said. "The… terrorist!" Felt fear running through her… but banished it, as her resolve strengthened. "How dare you take advantage of Sunshine?!" Raced at him, with the knife. "You evil, murderous…!"

"No, Madgella, it's not what you think!" Sunshine cried.

Shoving the terrorist out of the way, she tackled Madgella to the ground, wrestling the knife away from her.

"I can explain," Sunshine said. "He's not a terrorist — he's been framed! But we happen to be in love, and since you were asleep, we thought…"

"No," Madgella muttered.

Getting back to her feet and staggering away from Sunshine.

"No," Madgella repeated. "No, that's not possible. You can't be…!"

"In love?" Sunshine yanked some of the bedsheets off her bed, and pulled them around herself, out of modesty. "Why not? You've seen me happy. You've seen me upset. Why's it such a stretch to think I can actually fall in…?!"

"You can't be talking," Madgella insisted. Turning and fleeing from the room, not able to face this. "It's not possible. You're Sunshine! You're a pet! You don't talk!"

Sunshine realized her mistake.

Clapped her hand over her mouth and swore under her breath.

"This isn't happening," Madgella told herself. Stumbling up the basement steps, as a gale began to blow outside. "This is a dream. A nightmare! Just wake up, Madgella! Wake up!"

"Madgella, wait!" Sunshine cried, following her up the steps.

Madgella tried to ignore her.

Tried to ignore everything, as she stumbled back into the front entryway. Like the disabled security alarms — that could only be disabled from inside the house. Or the computer with top secret information still spilling across its screen. Or the open door… unlocked, not forced… like someone had just  _invited_  the terrorist inside…

Sunshine reached out, and grabbed her shoulder. Turned her around.

"I can explain!" Sunshine tried. "I mean, yes, I can suddenly speak. But it's as much a surprise to me as it is to—"

"Suddenly speak!" Madgella turned on Sunshine. "You could  _always_  speak. This whole time! And you still pretended you were just some harmless…!"

Sunshine didn't seem to know what to say to this.

"Who are you, really?" Madgella demanded, shoving the mammal's hand away from her. "What are you? What do you want from me?"

"Madgella, I—" Sunshine began.

"You're intelligent, you can speak, you can emote, and… you have two hearts and mammalian biology the likes of which no one's ever seen before," said Madgella. "You're not a pet at all, are you? You're not even from this planet!"

Sunshine hesitated. Then, in a low voice, "Yes."

"So… why?" Madgella said. The wind roaring, outside. "Why did you lie to me, Sunshine? Why come into my home, pretending you were a mindless animal who needed someone to take care of you? Just because you and your terrorist friends want to disable my security systems and use my house as a cover for their illegal activities!"

"Madgella…"

"I lost everything," Madgella cut in, a crack of thunder echoing outside. "I didn't understand how to keep going anymore! But taking care of you gave me meaning, again! I thought I was getting over it! And the whole time, you were simply… using me to…!"

The rain began pattering, heavily, on the glass roof and walls.

The wind howling more and more.

"I can't believe it," Madgella said. "I don't want to believe it. It can't possibly be real."

Sunshine looked almost pained.

But didn't deny it.

"No, this is… a mistake," Madgella decided. Clutching at anything she could, to stop her whole world from slipping away from her. "This has to be a mistake! You're Sunshine! My sweet, little, innocent Sunshine. You'd never be found mating with the mammal who killed all those people. You…"

"Please, Madgella," Sunshine begged. "Just listen…"

"You didn't know!" Madgella said. Hyperventilating, and clinging to the staircase banister to stop herself falling over into a great big mess on the doorway. "That's it. You didn't know he was a terrorist. Maybe you didn't know, and you fell in love, and you opened the door because… you're stupid!"

It wasn't a convincing story.

Not even to Madgella.

But she needed something — anything — that could explain this in some way that'd let her…!

"Stupid?!" Something inside of Sunshine snapped. "I spent months using you to get access to some of the most top-secret government files that exist. I snuck into Vedhor and managed to escape. Spent all this time emotionally manipulating you with telepathic gestures too subtle for you to sense!" She stepped forwards. "And you have the gall to call me stupid?!"

Madgella felt her whole world spinning, around her. "Sunshine…?"

"Yes, you're right — I lied to you," Sunshine snapped. "I could always talk. I could always understand! All those horrible things your friends said about me. All those humiliating things they made me do!"

"This isn't real," Madgella told herself, putting her hands over her ears. "You're Sunshine! You have to be…!"

Sunshine yanked Madgella's hands away from her ears. "One night of love and happiness!" Sunshine continued. "That's all I wanted! Just one night where I could finally be with someone who felt like I was worth it! And you wouldn't even let me have…!"

"Stop!" Madgella interrupted, stumbling backwards. "Don't! I can't deal with this. I can't accept this! It can't be real! It can't—!"

The terrorist mammal suddenly raced forwards — now wearing shorts — and grabbed Sunshine by the hand.

"We have to go," said the terrorist, in a voice so familiar that it sent a ripple of lightning through the air, as Madgella realized that even this aspect of her life — the friend she'd confided in, whom she'd thought was normal — began to shattering around her. "Seo, the Weather Patrollers. They're…!"

The door crashed open all the way, and a squad of Weather Patrollers stormed in.

Sunshine and the terrorist turned to run, but didn't get far before the Weather Patrollers opened fire.

Striking them with the neural stunners.

Making both cry out, as they dropped to the ground. Eyes drawing shut. Passed out.

"Scan the perimeter," said the Weather Patrol leader. "I want any suspicious tech and any evidence gathered and seized." He turned to Madgella. "Are you all right?"

Madgella watched, as two Weather Patrollers grabbed up Sunshine and the terrorist, and began to haul them away.

"You're here to take me away," Madgella said. "I'm unstable. I…" a gust of wind tore across the panels of the house, rain spattering across its surface. "But not Sunshine! You don't understand — she's not emotionally tied to me! She's…"

"Madgella, please calm down," said the Weather Patroller leader. "We're not taking you anywhere. You've been unstable, we know — but only because of what these terrorists did to you. When they're gone, I'm certain you'll be fine."

"No, no, I…" Madgella didn't even know the words to say, as her emotions raged in a violent storm, around her.

"We're here for the terrorists," said the Weather Patroller. "Not you."

"Not…?" Madgella's mind spun. "The terrorist. Yes. Yes, he's been… corrupting my pet. Making her tell me all sorts of horrible lies about how she's a criminal who's been using me! Sunshine wouldn't—"

"I'm afraid the female mammal you call Sunshine," said the Weather Patroller, "real name, Seo, has been one of the biggest criminals on this planet since she arrived. An alien. A terrorist. A murderer."

"A… murderer?" Madgella clung to the banister a little tighter. "That can't be…"

"Your late husband, the honorable Madgel," the Weather Patroller agreed, "was her doing. Trying to make you vulnerable, so she could inveigled her way into your life and use your late husband's connections to plunge us into chaos, anarchy, and war."

"What?!"

"Everything you've heard about on the news or in the media," said the Weather Patroller, "Sunshine is responsible for. The male is just her sidekick. We knew, if we found him… we'd find her."

No. No, Madgella knew none of this could be true! It couldn't…

But the terrorist male had called her 'Seo'.

Just like the Weather Patroller had said.

And what Sunshine had shouted at Madgella — that she'd been using her, this whole time. Emotionally manipulating her!

"It's a lie," Madgella insisted — desperate to convince herself of this. "It has to be a lie!"

"I'm sorry, it's the truth," said the Weather Patroller.

Another Weather Patroller ran over, showing the first one a little electronic device. They switched it on, and it projected a perfect image of… the lizard named 'Dave', whom she'd been talking to, for so long. The one who'd cared about Sunshine.

Except… it was a disguise… and the real Dave was…

"Constructed by her, no doubt," the Weather Patroller said, switching it off and examining it. "Using things found in this very house — so we wouldn't pick it up, when we scanned for alien tech." He turned it over in his hand. "Gotta say, whatever else she is — she's a genius. No mistake about that."

"Money," said Madgella.

They looked up at her.

"I'll give you money," said Madgella. "I'll give you this house! Everything I own! Just don't take Sunshine!" The rain splotted down on the house, even harder than before. "She saved my life! She helped me! I can't… can't let you take…!"

She couldn't go on.

Thought she might burst into a million raindrops and dissolve out of existence completely, if she did.

The Weather Patroller looked down at Madgella. His sympathy cutting through the storm. The turned to one of his team. "Please escort Madgella to a health center, to find some peace and stability," he said. "This is a very tempestuous time for her, with the true plot of concerning her husband's death finally uncovered." In a more pointed tone, "Make sure she accepts it."

"No," Madgella insisted, unwilling to believe anything that had happened that night — not this, not Sunshine talking, not the terrorist, or the news about her husband's death or any of it! "Don't take away my Sunshine! I'll give you anything! Any amount of money! I'll give you this house!" She tried to break free, to plead with the Weather Patroller leader. "She needs me to care for her! Please!"

The other Weather Patroller helped steady Madgella, giving her a dose of Emotion Soother to calm the storm, as he took her outside. Repeating the truth to her, all the while.

That 'Sunshine' had manipulated her. Used her. That 'Sunshine' didn't need anyone to look after her. Least of all Madgella.

The Weather Patroller leader looked after them.

As the storm subsided.

"Money," he repeated. "With all your wealth, not even you, Madgella, have enough money to buy a resource like her." He turned to the others. "Use the tech here as a basis, so we can scan for any other aliens she's hidden nearby. I want all the aliens caught and stripped of alien tech ASAP. No rescues. No communications. We take it all and use it for ourselves."

The Weather Patrollers set out to do it.

Commander Yxpress, meanwhile, watched as the two limp bodies were hauled out of the house.

"And make sure she doesn't wake up before she's shipped out," the Commander said. "The Grand Marshal believes she's more valuable than any of the others."


	19. Chapter 19

Jack knew he'd been careless. Or he'd have picked up the warning signs right away.

But the first moment he knew anything was wrong was when the Weather Patrollers came out of nowhere, surrounded him, seized him — then deactivated his disguise.

So they knew.

Everything.

Damn.

"Fancy bit of kit!" Jack whistled at one of the more attractive male Weather Patrollers, who was wielding something that looked like an ion splicer mixed with a photon regenerator. "Like it! Tosh'd be proud."

They responded by shoving a gun directly in his face.

"One move out of line from any of you aliens," said the leader of the Weather Patrollers, "and one of you dies. We don't need all three."

Jack recognized the looks in their eyes.

It was like the looks in Emily and Alice's eyes, back in the 19th century, when Torchwood had first tracked Jack down and started killing him over and over again — without caring about it in the slightest.

"So you've got us all, huh?" Jack sighed, but didn't struggle as they led him outside and towards their nondescript hopper-van. "Better give the two lovebirds their own private cell. No telling how kinky things might get with chains involved."

The Weather Patroller leader ignored Jack's comment.

"Search the rest of the building," he ordered his men. "Any alien tech you find — I want to know about it." He turned back to Jack and the Weather Patrollers shoving him into the van. "As for him — standard procedure. Shove him in a cell with that other male mammal. Either is expendable."

Jack felt a chill run through him.

As he realized…

"Where's Seo?" Jack demanded. "What have you done with her?"

They didn't answer.

Just shot him with the neural stunner, so he was knocked out cold, then threw him into the back of the van.

* * *

When Dave came to, he found himself restrained and still in his shorts. Looked, to Dave, like the Weather Patrollers had brought him to some secret underground cave, with UV lights that emitted enough warmth to make it comfortable to reptiles.

They'd dragged his ship down here, too.

That was what they were trying to find a way inside, right now.

"The first mammal is awake," came a voice.

Dave barely had time to process what was happening, as all attention was turned back on him. Barely had time to do anything about it.

He felt himself grabbed up from the ground and dragged away from his ship — into another room, with a machine that looked like it had been scavenged from a bunch of alien tech gathered from assorted galactic powers.

They shoved him inside — roughly — then turned the machine on.

Dave gritted his teeth to stop himself crying out, as the machine's beam felt like it was searing him from the inside out, as it ran through his body.

He didn't have much time to do what he had to.

Focus, Dave!

Time to activate the backup plan.

"What did you do to Seo?!" he shouted, to cover his actions, as he fiddled with the implant in his right thumb. "Where is she?!"

They ignored him.

"Physiology scan complete," said one of the lizard techs, by the equipment. "Basic physiological structure resembling the mammals, but…"

An alarm sounded.

"Alien energy signature detected," said the techie. "Implanted in the right thumb."

They dragged him out of the machine, and Dave tried, once again, to fight back. But whatever drug they'd used on him, this time, was worse than the stuff at Vedhor — and he found his every move sluggish and weak.

"What did you do to Seo?!" he demanded.

"You'll never see her again," the Commander replied, bending over the techie's work station and peering at the display. "Yes. The right thumb." He turned to the Weather Patrollers restraining Dave. "Remove it."

Dave roared, kicking and punching with everything he had, as they dragged him to a workbench.

Slammed his hand down on its surface, forcing the fingers open.

And, in one movement, sliced off his thumb.

* * *

"Comply?" said Jack Harkness, as they stripped him of most of his clothes, all his weapons, and his vortex manipulator — and shoved him into the machine. He winked at the lizard techie behind the machine. "Hey, for you, I'll comply with anything."

They didn't catch his charm.

Didn't care about him at all, as they activated the pulse beam in the machine, and it seared though Jack.

"Whoa, what'd you set your Dynerian Cathode Array at?" Jack gasped, when it was over. "Any higher, and that could have killed me."

"Physiological scans complete," said the techie, reading through the results. "Humanoid physiology, similar to that of the previous alien, but more advanced."

"So you're the local alien tech group, huh?" Jack asked. "Gotta warn you — hundred and fifty years ago, on Earth, I was kidnapped and tortured by a group like yours. But by the end, turns out, I was running the thing!"

His face darkened.

With memory.

"Times change, of course," Jack muttered.

Decided he didn't want to talk about this anymore.

They dragged Jack out of the machine, and pointed a lot of guns — some of them extremely alien and extremely unpleasant — at Jack. Jack raised his hands over his head. "Hey, I'm complying, I'm complying! No need for the rough stuff!" He winked. "Unless you like that sort of thing."

"He's clean," said the lizard techie. "No weapons or alien tech on him."

"Move," they commanded him, leading him downwards through the complex.

Jack didn't, for a moment.

Just let his eyes linger on the Weather Patroller leader.

"Just a word of advice," said Jack. "I'm looking after Seo. That means — if you mess with her, you mess with me. And you really don't want that."

Then he turned.

And followed the men with guns down to the cells.

* * *

Jimmenila, Callea, and Pwouia could all feel their trepidation lingering in the air like mist. As they brought Madgella back home, and tried to settle her down.

The skies above her house were clear.

Of everything.

"Yes, you're right, I need to be home," Madgella said, her words sounding faint and her eyes not quite focusing correctly. She got up from the sofa, and nearly fell over — but Pwouia steadied her. "Sunshine needs me to make sure she's…"

Madgella stopped herself.

Then sat back down.

"No Sunshine," she reminded herself.

"I'll have Grassdew make you something to eat," Callea offered — and Grassdew was already heading off to the kitchens to do so before she finished her sentence. "We'll get you the help you need. We promise."

Madgella didn't even look at them.

Just stared down at the ground.

"She is… was… such a dear thing," Madgella said. "I thought. But then she started talking, and she told me she'd been manipulating me and changing around my emotions. And they took her away, and when I tried to get her back, they said she killed my husband."

None of her friends said anything to this.

But their trepidation grew.

"All that blood…" Madgella started. Then trailed off. As the drugs took hold, again, and banished storm clouds from her mind. She caught sight of the sun, in the sky, and tried to stand up. "Midmorning, already? I better go take Sunshine for her walk. She always gets… so…"

Madgella stopped.

Remembered.

"Using me, the whole time," Madgella muttered. "A terrorist. In my home."

Callea put an arm around her, and led her towards the dining hall. "Why don't we check on that breakfast, Madgella?" she said. "You'll feel better with something to eat."

And led her away.

Jimmenila turned on Pwouia. "What's going on, here?"

Pwouia's trepidation was still pervasive around them. As her eyes followed the sound of Madgella's words, through the house. "This is all wrong."

"Yes, it is! After all, the Weather Patrollers are supposed to help people!" Jimmenila said. "They should be giving Madgella a change of scenery and a lot of therapy and counseling, to help get her emotions under control." Disgust rose from her like smoke. "But instead…"

"They just drugged her with emotional suppressers," Pwouia agreed. "And sent her home. Like they didn't care about her at all." She twitched her tail against the ground. "Leaving her with that… story."

They both stayed, for a while, in silence.

Thinking about what they'd heard from Madgella — about Sunshine murdering Madgel.

"It's a lie, of course," said Pwouia. "Sunshine might have been a pretty useless pet — but she wasn't a murderer."

"Of course it's a lie," said Jimmenila. "But… why? And why are they so determined to make her believe it, instead of catching the  _real_ murderer?"

Pwouia leaned down over the small table in front of the sofa, and picked up the packets of emotional suppressor pills they had prescribed Madgella.

Her fist clenched around the packets.

Eyes focused into the distance.

"It's as if they felt like Madgella  _needed_  to believe Sunshine was the bad guy," Jimmenila continued. "Which is ridiculous. Defective, and useless as a pet, yes. But… evil? They honestly want Madgella to believe that?"

"I think… maybe… Sunshine didn't need Madgella," said Pwouia. "But Madgella needed Sunshine. More than any of us ever realized."

Jimmenila thought this through. "So… what? They knew that Madgella would fall apart if they took Sunshine away — so they pretended she was a terrorist to soften the blow?"

In the distance, they could hear Madgella trying to get up, again, to do something for Sunshine.

And then remembering that Sunshine was gone.

"I… just… don't know," said Pwouia.

They exchanged a look.

Then let the matter drop.

"Madgella must be exhausted," Jimmenila decided, heading towards the dining room. "Maybe, after some sleep, she'll feel better."

The three of them helped her to eat the food Grassdew had prepared, then lie down and sleep on the nice, sunny rock in her bedroom.

They waited until they knew for sure that she was asleep — before heading downstairs.

And conferring amongst themselves.

"I know none of us have ever been great fans of Sunshine," Callea said. She swished her tail. "But… looking at Madgella, now that Sunshine's gone…"

They glanced back up the stairs.

All knew what Callea meant.

"They're going to kill Sunshine, aren't they?" Jimmenila guessed. "To try to purge Madgella's darker emotions."

None of them knew.

But it seemed pretty likely.

"We have to stop them," Callea decided. "The moment Sunshine dies, Madgella will be lost forever." She began to turn away. "Fortunately, I have contacts. Know people in high places. Perhaps we could force some kind of government—"

"Sunshine will be dead long before the government does anything," Pwouia said. Her trepidation drifted away. Replaced by a feeling of determination, growing hot inside the air around them. "No. There's only one thing we, as the privileged and rich, can do to save Madgella."

"What?" said Jimmenila.

Pwouia strode towards the front door. "We're going to charter a private plane over to the Weather Patroller Global Headquarters," she said. "And get Sunshine back, ourselves." She opened the door. "Now."


	20. Chapter 20

Seo kept waking up, during the flight.

And they kept noticing, and drugging her to keep her under.

The drugging wasn't just medicinal — they'd placed a strong psychic influence inside her mind. Even when Seo thought she could outsmart them by pretending to still be out of it, and listening in… she found herself struggling to keep awake…

And failing.

She did, eventually, wake up.

In a white, sterile room, surrounded by machines and lizards in lab technician getup — some crowding around her, others crowding around different bits of machinery.

They'd dressed her back in pet garb, and pinned her to an operating table, with metal restraints. A bright light flashing in her eyes.

Seo squinted and twitched.

"…don't want excuses," a voice said, and Seo could feel the psychic anger pouring off him in droves. "I just want to know why!"

"Looks like she's awake, Grand Marshal," said another voice. "You can ask her yourself."

An older-looking lizard leaned over — this one attired in Weather Patroller uniform — blocking the light a little and examining her, closely.

The Grand Marshal, Seo guessed.

"Why can't we get any images of you?" the Grand Marshal demanded.

Seo tried to shrug. "I'm a bit camera shy," she offered. "Not very photogenic."

She was already starting to regain her strength, and knew it was only a matter of time before she could tear her restraints off the table and get herself free. Wherever she was, now, she definitely didn't want to know what they had in store for her.

"Tell us how to make it work," said the Grand Marshal, "or we'll use the image of your lover, instead. Blame the death of Senior Statesman Madgel on  _him_. And… unlike you… he'll get the death penalty for it."

Seo went very still.

And very quiet.

"Where is he?" Seo asked, barely above a whisper. Her eyes bored into the Grand Marshal's. "What have you done with him?"

"Your allies are safe," said the Grand Marshal. "For now."

"Pending my cooperation, I suppose," Seo sighed, closing her eyes. "Brilliant. Same the universe over."

"They could be useful in the upcoming war," said the Grand Marshal. "As could their technology."

Seo's eyes popped open. "War?" She shook her head. "Your people aren't at war."

"Don't play games — we know why you've come here," the Grand Marshal replied. "We have the recording of what you said at Vedhor."

Seo heard her own voice, being played back to her.

_That 'burst of light' wasn't a crashed space ship. It was a wormhole. Connecting future to past._

"A wormhole you made," the Grand Marshal said. "According to your next little comment."

Seo didn't answer.

"The physiological scans of your two friends showed distinct similarities with the mammals here," the Grand Marshal continued. "Those two are from the mammals' home world. The advanced scout for an invasion force that's coming to wipe us all out."

"What?!" Seo cried. "That's ridiculous!" She paused. Then added, "Or are you afraid the humans will send an invasion force to destroy you… because you know what you're doing to the humans here is wrong?"

She started to, very slowly so as not to be noticed, wiggle at the metal restraints. Hoping to dislodge them from the operating table, the moment the Grand Marshal and the others left the room and were no longer pointing guns at her.

If she escaped, now… she'd just get shot down.

Better be strategic.

Use this as an opportunity to learn more about what was going on.

"That's it, isn't it?" Seo went on. "You  _know_  these humans are intelligent. You  _know_  they're every bit as capable of independent emotion as you lot! But you're still sanctioning places like Vedhor to—!"

The Grand Marshal grabbed at her shoulders, leaning over so the scaly skin of his face was just in front of hers. The yellow eyes fixed on her own brown ones.

He emitted a psychic pulse that throbbed inside her head.

"Tell me," the Grand Marshal demanded, "how to make you show up on camera."

Seo squeezed her eyes shut against the psychic attack.

And managed to resist the urge he'd planted in her mind to tell him everything.

"Why does this matter so much to you?" Seo said, instead, squinting up at him in an act of stubborn defiance. "I thought you were worried about some invasion."

He stood back up straight, again, the light shining down into Seo's eyes once more.

"Other departments of the Weather Patrollers are already dealing with invasion defenses," said the Grand Marshal. "You're needed for a more important task."

"You mean confessing to a murder I didn't commit?" Seo asked. She kept trying to think how any of this made sense to her.

If they honestly believed they were about to be invaded by aliens… why was  _this_  on their priority list?

Or… was this not about alien invasions at all?

The Marshal let her go and paced the room, his tail swishing with every step.

Seo felt the psychic pressure ease from her mind.

"I'd urge you to be reasonable, alien mammal," said the Marshal, "and tell us everything we want to know, voluntarily." He gestured around himself. "Whether you show up on machines, or not — we still have enough evidence to deduce that your physiology is somewhat… extraordinary."

Seo looked around herself.

As it finally sunk in… exactly where she was. What she was strapped to. And its significance.

An operating theater.

"You'll help us one way or another," the Marshal told her. "Whether or not it's on a dissection table is up to you."

Seo shook her head. "And framing me for murder is important enough to…?"

Then stopped.

As it all clicked together in her mind.

"Oh," Seo said. Stared at the Marshal. "Now this is making sense. A terrible, sick sort of sense." She took a long, heavy breath. "I think I've just worked out who broke into Madgella's house, that night when her husband was killed."

The Marshal stopped in his tracks.

Turned to the others.

"Leave," he commanded. "Now."

Seo could feel their unease settling in the air around her. But they complied with the order, vacating the room in a matter of seconds.

"So they don't know?" Seo said, as they left. The door shutting and locking behind them. Her eyes drifted back to the Grand Marshal. "No, you wouldn't want the secret to leak out, I suppose. Need-to-know basis only."

The Marshal eyed her, carefully.

Then, with the flick of a button, armed automatic gun mechanisms embedded in the wall — presumably trained on Seo.

"You claim you know our… 'secret'?" said the Marshal.

"I should have figured it out earlier," Seo said. " _That's_  why you Weather Patrollers never picked up Madgella, the whole time she was depressed and mucking up the weather for everyone else! It's why you already knew the layout of her house when you showed up to arrest me." Seo sighed at her own stupidity — all the things she'd overlooked! "And then there was the obvious thing. The knife wounds  _and_  the bullets."

The Grand Marshal's tail swished against the ground.

" _You_  broke into her house, didn't you?" Seo said. "You and your Weather Patrollers."

"We did not kill Madgel," the Marshal informed her.

"I know," said Seo. "That's the big secret. That's why you had to break into the house, find the bodies, and put bullets into them — to cover up the truth."

The Marshal paused.

"And what is the truth?" he asked — as if testing her cleverness.

"The attack came from  _inside_  Madgella's house," said Seo. "A chain reaction from an untrained human mind. Like what I saw Dave do at Vedhor — except this incident wasn't caused by Dave."

The Grand Marshal said nothing.

"It's the strays, isn't it?" said Seo. "That's why you keep putting so much pressure on Stray-Catchers. Because Madgella's tragedy wasn't alone. Kindhearted people adopt strays all the time. And with just a thought from a stray's untrained, unlobotomized mind…!"

The Grand Marshal twitched.

"That's your secret," said Seo. "You can't control the pets anymore. At all! All you've done, with your operations at Vedhor, is put  _everyone_  in danger." She raised her eyebrows. "And you're desperate no one figures that out."


	21. Chapter 21

When Jack was thrown into the cell, he found Dave already there. Passed out from blood loss.

And missing a thumb.

"Nine fingers," said Jack, as he stripped off his undershirt and started tearing it into strips to bandage up Dave's hand. "Like I was expecting, back when I first met you. Guess  _this_  is how you  _really_ lost that thumb."

He guessed the historians had gotten it wrong. Or maybe Dave, when he got old and famous, had woven a story around this event which made him sound more like a hero making a choice that'd change his life, and less like a lovesick and nearly dying ex-chevauchéer.

The bleeding was intensive. Every bandage completely blood-soaked the moment Jack laid it on the injury.

Jack wasn't going to fix this on his own.

"Hey!" Jack shouted through the bars of his cell. "This guy's not gonna be great leverage for whatever you want Seo to do, if he bleeds to death!"

He figured, unless the entire history of humanity was scheduled for a massive rewrite — the lizards would listen to him.

Turns out, he was right.

They stormed the cell, keeping Jack covered by a group of heavily armed thugs. As one of the lizards cauterized and stitched up the wound on Dave's hand.

"Laser scalpel should help with that," Jack offered. "I think you've got some bits of one wired into that bio-scan machine."

They ignored Jack.

Just finished up with Dave, and left.

It was a while before Dave recovered enough to actually regain consciousness. And a miracle that the lizards had known enough of what to do so he  _could_  recover.

"Where…?" Dave asked.

Then cried out, with pain, clutching his mutilated hand.

"Cut off a thumb, looks like," said Jack. "You're lucky to be alive."

Dave gritted his teeth against the pain, as he struggled to sit up without jostling the hand too much. "Embedded thumb-corder," he muttered. "They must have picked it up, when I sent…"

He snuck a peek at the hand.

Then looked away.

A part of him still clearly not wanting to accept that all this was really happening.

"Seo…" Dave said, instead. "Did… did they tell you… what happened to…?"

Jack shook his head. "Just that she's far away, and we won't see her again." He leaned against the wall of the cell, eyes fixed on Dave's mutilated hand. "Since they kept you alive, I'm guessing they're using our lives as leverage to make sure she does what they want."

Dave struggled to keep the pain off his face, as the hand throbbed, yet again.

"Bastards," Dave spat.

Jack shrugged. "Don't knock being kept alive," he said. "Death's not all it's cracked up to be." He paused. Then, with a little laugh, added, "Hope I'll get to be around, though, when Seo finds out what happened to you. There'll be no stopping her, then."

Dave couldn't help but crack the hints of a grin at this.

"You seen her in a fight, yet?" Jack asked. "She definitely inherited some Slayer from her mom — no doubt about it. These lizard guys will never know what hit them!"

Dave looked up at Jack.

Solemn.

Serious.

"She won't have to fight," Dave told him. "I'm going to rescue her."

Jack looked at Dave's injured hand. Then at Dave himself — pale and weak from blood loss.

"Sure you are," Jack said. "How about you just lie down for a while, get your strength back, and then… if Seo hasn't already burst in here with everything back under her control… we'll start making plans."

"You don't believe me."

Jack didn't have to answer this.

Dave ventured a look down at his hand. Then cringed, at the sight of it — as if just looking at it made all the pain come flooding back. He squeezed his eyes shut.

"They… tried to stop me…" Dave breathed. "Cut off my thumb. But too late. I'd prepared for this…. Made sure… the message… was already recorded and waiting…"

Jack froze. "Message?"

Dave didn't answer.

But he didn't need to.

"They detected your thumb-corder — because you used it to send a message," Jack realized. "Before they cut it off."

And thinking through everything Jack had had to learn about galactic history, passing all those tests for the Time Agency — Jack could guess what the message said.

Looked like the historians hadn't been as far off as he'd thought, before.

"An explorer, you told Seo," said Jack. "You lying bastard."

Dave wavered. Looked like he was about to pass out, again.

Jack rushed over and grabbed him by the shoulders. "So what's your  _real_ 'job'?" Jack demanded. "What chevauchée team are you working for? How much have you told them?"

"It's… the truth," Dave muttered. "In a way. Explorer. 'S what I am." He struggled to keep himself conscious. "Proves you two really are time travelers. You… don't know… what 'explorer' means."

"Let me guess," said Jack. "You're an advanced scout for some chevauchée group. You send back details of all this planet's weapons and defenses. Then send them the signal, so they can invade."

"Not… just…  _one_  group," Dave replied.

His voice very weak.

Jack stared at him.

"Yeah, definitely… a time… traveler," Dave said. Closed his eyes. "If… you don't know…"

As his head slumped down.

"Dave!" Jack shouted, slapping his cheeks. "Dave! Wake up! What are you talking about? What did you do?"

No answer.

Jack stepped away.

Having the horrible feeling… that Dave had just done something extremely stupid.

And now — they were all in danger.

* * *

"We  _can_  control the pets," the Grand Marshal insisted.

"With murders like Madgel's happening at random, all across the globe?" Seo shook her head. "No, this is a fundamental, systematic problem. After all, you're turning the humans into emotional sponges. But that means — any stray emotion from any unlobotomized human, on this planet, and your control over your pets can vanish in an instant."

"We're… working on that," said the Grand Marshal.

"No wonder you Weather Patrollers don't have time to deal with the emotional problems of your own people, anymore!" she said. "You're overwhelmed by trying to contain a problem in the pets that you, yourselves, started!"

"Vedhor isn't the only facility of its kind," the Grand Marshal told her. "We are experimenting. We will find a solution."

"Oh, because your experiments have already worked so well!" Seo said. "You can't catch them all, Grand Marshal! Every so often, you're going to get one or two humans who escape and run away before you can perform surgery. And they don't have the psychic discipline to stop their emotions bleeding through into everyone else."

"We've stepped up our Stray-Removal operations," said the Marshal. "With the right level of technology, we'll be able to scan for the correct heat signatures. We'll get all the mammals."

Seo gave an exasperated sigh. "And I keep telling you, you  _never_  will!" she insisted. "What about crooked stray-catchers, who take bribes from vets who want to experiment? Or kind-hearted people, like Madgella? She kept me as a pet, knowing I'd never been to Vedhor. And she had no intention of ever sending me."

The Grand Marshal said nothing.

"There's always the chance that one of your lot decides to take in a stray, for whatever reason, that hasn't had its ability to independently emote surgically removed," Seo told him. "And so long as there's  _one_  human mind on this planet that's capable of independent emotions — you don't have full control."

"We'll find a way," the Marshal replied. "Eventually."

"And in the meantime?" Seo asked. The sides of her lips twitching into a half-smile. "You can't keep covering it up forever. One of these days, the public's going to make the same connections I just did."

The Marshal began pacing the room, yet again. "You are forgetting — our planet is no stranger to aliens," the Marshal told her. "We hardly could be, given the mammals amongst us. And we all know there are alien races in the universe that must have… astounding psychic powers."

He turned his head to look at her.

"Astounding enough to manipulate pets into murder," the Marshal added.

Ah.

So that's why they wanted  _Seo_ as their scapegoat.

"Dave and Jack are human," Seo muttered to herself. "Of course! Blame them for the murder, and people might guess your secret! But  _my_  physiology…"

The Marshal said nothing.

Didn't have to.

"So that's it?" said Seo. "That's your answer? Blame aliens, until you can come up with a better way to cut up these humans' brains?"

"In part," the Marshal replied.

"Because I'll tell you right now — you're not going to solve this problem with surgery," Seo continued. "That'll just make things worse! No, the only way you'll get out of this pickle is to shut down all your little internment camps, treat the humans like intelligent beings, and  _teach_  them how to control their emotional…"

She stopped.

Frowned.

"What do you mean, 'in part'?" Seo asked.

"Aliens make useful scapegoats, yes," said the Grand Marshal. "But better intelligence."

"Intelli…?!" Seo started, but stopped herself. As she remembered — they had a recording of everything she'd said at Vedhor.  _Everything_. "So that's why I'm so much more important than the others."

"I said we'd get our answers whether you chose to cooperate or not," the Marshal reminded her. "Physiological scanning revealed that your two friends are adaptations of the mammals on this planet." His tail swished. "It's not just  _your_  dissection that could give us vital information."

Seo glared at the Marshal. "Don't you  _dare_ …"

"Commander Yxpress was fully prepared to gun your lover down and slice him open," said the Grand Marshal. "But after reading the report of your actions at Vedhor, I thought… there was a better way." He took another step towards her. "You're a clever mammal. You seem to know where the pets came from, and how they function. While it took us years to determine that emotional leakage was the source of our problems — you figured it out in a matter of moments, and took advantage in order to escape from Vedhor."

"And you want me to use everything I know about them, to help you oppress them?" She gave a bitter laugh. "Guess again."

The Marshal's tail swished against the ground.

"Of course, Commander Yxpress would be more than happy to learn he was right all along," said the Grand Marshal, "and begin dissecting your…"

"All right!" Seo shouted. She slumped in her bonds, head dropping back. "All right," she muttered. "You made your point."

She was quiet for a long few moments.

Then, a little wearily, "What do you want to know?"

The Grand Marshal hit an intercom button, and called in some associates. They entered, three armed guards all pointing their guns straight at Seo. As a fourth undid her restraints.

"Let me introduce you to the scientific team working on this problem," the Grand Marshal said, as Seo sat up and massaged her wrists. He walked past her, towards the doors. "I'm sure they'll be very excited to meet you."

Seo slipped off the operating table.

"Just as happy as they'd be to dissect me, if I make one wrong move," she muttered. "I get the picture."

Then looked up, as another lizard burst into the room, and whispered something to the Grand Marshal. The Grand Marshal looked between the messenger, and Seo. Then muttered something to the messenger, and sent him away.

"Take her to the labs," the Grand Marshal instructed his men. "I have to deal with this."

Seo had to work very hard to keep the smile off her face.

Perfect distraction.


	22. Chapter 22

Jimmenila and Pwouia had never seen Callea like this.

Although perhaps they should have expected it.

"Do you know who I am?" Callea demanded of the security guards, in the front of the Weather Patrol Global Headquarters. She practically had thunderclouds around her head. "Callel Corp is your biggest funder and your strongest supporter." She pointed at the locked doors, leading to the inside of the complex. "As far as I'm concerned, anything beyond those doors are  _mine_ , by right."

The security guards were clearly trying to remain stoic.

But they  _did_  know who she was.

Just like they recognized the Jimmenila and Pwouia.

"It's a top secret operation," the security guard informed Callea. "The Weather Patrollers are working for your protection as much as they are for everyone—"

"And that might be how the public feels, now," said Pwouia, stepping forwards. "But I own Pwoui Media. And if I let them know just how you treated my friend Madgella… perhaps they won't be quite so sympathetic towards you, anymore."

This seemed to make the security guard even more uneasy.

"Now, let's be reasonable, here," Jimmenila insisted, taking her place beside her two friends. "We don't want to get this poor security man into trouble. He's just doing his job, after all."

"Yes," the security guard insisted. Strengthening his resolve. "Yes, I am. And you ladies aren't allowed in here."

"But I'm sure," Jimmenila continued, not listening to him, "that your bosses might be very pleased if you reported our presence to them, immediately. After all — we're not here to cause trouble. We just want to take one little pet off your hands — and then we'll be on our way."

It was only a matter of time, after that, before Callea, Jimmenila, and Pwouia were escorted to a private office, to speak with the Grand Marshal himself.

Whatever the Grand Marshal had been up to, before, it was clear that he had  _not_  appreciated the interruption.

Nor was he any sunnier when the three friends told him their demands.

"Impossible," the Grand Marshal told them. "The mammal in question is an alien, and a murderer. The safest place for her is behind bars."

The three friends looked at one another.

Their surprise echoing through the air around them.

"An alien," Pwouia muttered. "That… would explain a lot."

"Emotionally blind, we said," Jimmenila said, as it all clicked inside her mind. "Unable to understand the language, when she first arrived."

"Madgella didn't tell you that part?" The Grand Marshal leaned forwards to address the ladies. "Listen. We're all sympathetic to what happened to your friend. But we've arrested Madgel's murderer — and I promise that Madgella will find justice for what happened."

That one they  _had_  heard from Madgella, though.

And they weren't going to let the Grand Marshal get away with it.

"You think we'll feel sunny just because you're accusing Sunshine and sweeping the matter under the rug?" said Pwouia. "There's a killer on the loose, out there — and I want him caught!"

"We know it wasn't Sunshine," Jimmenila agreed. "She might have been a useless pet — but she wasn't a murderer."

"The three of us, together, have more money than you could possibly imagine," Callea added. "If you hand Sunshine over, we'll pay you anything you want."

The Grand Marshal's vague mirth rumbled through the air around them. "There isn't enough money in the world to buy back this alien," he told them. "Particularly not to a group of misguided friends who just want her as a pet."

Callea stood up. "I didn't want to have to do this," she said. "But Callel Corp owns the scientists we lease to you. Which means any patent on alien technology you discover is legally owned by my company." She set a hand down on the desk. "Give us Sunshine. Or I'll make sure Callel Corp revokes all your patents and scientists."

"You can try," the Grand Marshal replied. He leaned back in his chair. "But I'm not sure that even you, Callea, have that much power."

"Then I'll make sure the media covers what you did to Madgella," said Pwouia. "Drugging her and then sending her back home, without any help at all."

"And I know a lot of private investigators who'd be able to uncover the truth about Sunshine's innocence," Jimmenila added. "And lawyers, who'll drag you to court and make sure you give us Sunshine back, one way or another."

The Grand Marshal held up a hand.

And the three ladies went silent.

"With all due respect to you ladies," said the Grand Marshal, "none of your efforts would do any good. The alien in question is not a pet, and never was. Any investigation would find that blatantly obvious."

"She might not be the same species as the others," Jimmenila argued, "but she's just as much a pet as anyone else. You can't treat her like some… hostile aggressor, just because she happens to be from another—"

"Were you aware," the Grand Marshal cut in, "that — while pretending to be Madgella's harmless pet — this same… 'Sunshine'… broke into Vedhor using a space capsule that can appear out of thin air and change shape, after which she managed to subvert all our systems and hack through all our data security in only a matter of minutes?"

The three ladies were speechless.

"You can dispute whether she's a hostile alien threat," said the Grand Marshal. "You might even try to prove, with some success, that she only murdered Madgella's husband as a means to an end — and isn't likely to murder anyone else, again." He looked into their eyes. "But she  _isn't_  a pet. And turning her into a mindless, emotionless creature like all the others would be… wasting her."

"Sunshine is smart?" Pwouia blinked, trying to believe it. "She couldn't even figure out how to correctly clean a floor!"

"Or make Madgella a proper breakfast," said Jimmenila.

"I don't believe it," said Callea. "Not for a second." She leaned forwards, thrusting her finger in the Grand Marshal's face. "Alien or not — we're not letting you turn Sunshine into a dissection experiment. She's Madgella's pet, and she's coming home with us."

The Grand Marshal's irritation set down around him like fog.

"If you three had the merest inkling," the Grand Marshal said, "just who your friend Madgella was harboring, you'd never even think of—!"

An alarm sounded.

And the Grand Marshal was on his feet in an instant. Racing out the door, and demanding to know what the situation was.

If it hadn't been for the pandemonium, Callea, Jimmenila, and Pwouia might never have known what had set off the alarms.

But as it was, they couldn't miss it.

"Then find her!" they heard the Grand Marshal say, shouting to be heard over the alarms. "Security teams across the full perimeter. Every single square inch searched, top to bottom. She might not show up on machines, but she's visible to the naked eye."

"I think Sunshine's just escaped," said Pwouia.

Callea strode out the door, purposefully. "In that case," she said, "it's up to us to make sure those security teams never find her."


	23. Chapter 23

It was  a trick Seo had learned from Aunt Dawn.

A stumble and a trip, knocking into someone — and you could slip your hand right into their pocket without their noticing, and take all kinds of stuff.  And while they'd already taken everything off of her before locking her up, here — Seo knew exactly what she needed to steal to make a very small bomb.

And it was fortunate for her that she happened to be in a top secret scientific facility.

So she stumbled and tripped and fell all over the place.  The klutziest person alive!  All the while, swiping things from the operating theater, the guards' pockets, passing trolleys, and even the pockets of passing scientists!

"Are we going to get there, soon?" Seo asked, after the guards forced her back to her feet, following another intentional stumble.  "I feel a bit dizzy from whatever you slipped me, earlier."

The guards didn't answer.

But their eyes all fixed on one door, just down the corridor — so Seo figured that was where they were headed.

Far enough away, fortunately, that the bomb she'd let roll out of her hand during her last stumble would have more than enough time to…

BOOM!

The explosion was small — not enough to cause any damage.  But enough to make the guards all spin around to figure out what happened.

Facing their backs to Seo.

Seo grabbed one and flipped him over her head, then elbowed the one to her right and grabbed the gun from his hands.  The last guard swung back towards her, ready to fire — but Seo was faster, knocking him into his disarmed friend, so they both tumbled to the floor, a tangle of arms, legs, and tails.

Then she threw the gun and ran — the other way, past the smoke from her bomb.

So they couldn't see where she was headed.

"Get the Marshal!" said the guards, as they got back to their feet and began to give chase.  "Sound the alarms!"

She slipped away into a side room — hid until they ran right past her.

Then doubled back, again.

And headed down a passage to her right.

This was one of the nice parts of not showing up on camera — if she escaped, they couldn’t find her.  And she was hoping she'd either be able to find her ship, here, and mount a rescue for Dave and Jack… or find something here to give her leverage over the lizard people, to force them to secure Dave and Jack's freedom no matter what she did.

Then, hopefully, she'd be able to set about freeing the humans.

 

* * *

 

Jack didn't know how long he had.

Nor did he know if the implant in Dave's thumb was just an intermediary relay point, and the real signal was inside Dave's ship — or if Dave's thumb was all he needed.

But it was clear to Jack what was about to happen.  And if he didn't escape from here, soon, and get Seo off this planet…

Well, he didn't want to think about that.

Because it wasn't gonna happen.

Jack Harkness wasn't about to fail anyone else.  Not on his watch!

"Hey!" Jack shouted, loud as he could, bent over Dave's limp form.  "Hey, you out there!  Whatever you did to him, it's not working.  You better come in here and take another whack at it."

Sure enough, they returned.

But this time, Jack wasn't so compliant.

"Keep him back!" Commander Yxpress snapped at the guards, who were struggling to keep Jack away from the door.  "No escapes.  Not on my watch."

"Yeah?" said Jack, finally managing to twist the guard's arm around and grab the gun off him.  Pointed it at the Commander.  "Wanna try stopping me after you're dead?"

He pulled the trigger.

Purposely missing.

But it had its intended effect.

Simultaneously, every single guard shot at Jack Harkness.

And he died.

 

* * *

 

Jack gasped back to life, and found himself lain out on an autopsy table.  Looked like he was next in line to get chopped up and dissected.

"So this is where they bring all the dead bits of people, huh?" Jack said, jumping to his feet and scanning the room.  His eyes fell on one particular corner.  "Including… thumbs."

It had been literally torn apart, to get the implant out.

Presumably to study it.

But Jack only had to take one look at it to know it was transmitting.  A short-range transmission, which is probably why everyone had raced out of here — to find out where, exactly, it was transmitting to.

"Five bucks says it's Dave's ship," Jack muttered, grabbing up a scalpel as a weapon, and sneaking out the door into the next room.

Most of the complex was abandoned.

Dave's ship, however, wasn't.

They'd finally managed to get inside it — and Jack could see the techie lizard woman from before, trying to make sense of the controls.

"Has to be some way to start up the engines," the techie was muttering to herself, looking through the displays.  She reached out a hand to a switch.  "Maybe… here."

"Nope, that starts the coffee machine," Jack said, slipping into the seat beside her.  He pointed to the drive mechanisms.  "Those make it go — but since you don't know how to fly it or get back here, you better not."

The techie almost jumped a mile high, when she saw Jack.

"You're dead!" the techie said.

"Yeah, you're not the first person who's thought that," Jack replied.  His eyes skimming over the systems.  "Looks like you took apart some of the mechanisms, here, already."  He started flipping different switches and pressing different displays, trying to get some display to work and show him how to shut down that transmission.  "Not the important one, of course.  Never is."

He was so absorbed in figuring out how to shut down the transmission with no displays working, he didn't realize the techie had slipped out until it was too late.

"He's in here!" the techie shouted.  "The mammal!  He's with the ship!"

Suddenly, the whole room was flooded with Weather Patrollers, all aiming guns at Jack.  Commander Yxpress demanding Jack's immediate surrender — "Or we'll shoot."

Jack gave an irritated sigh.

"Look," Jack said.  "There's a transmission coming from this thing, trying to bring down an invasion.  You shoot me, you could jam it into the 'on' position."  He turned back to the controls.  "So, if you don’t mind…"

They didn't believe him.

Jack figured that from the way five of them raced over and tried to wrestle him away from the controls.

"Don't let him touch anything," said Commander Yxpress.  "He'll betray our planet to the invaders."

"I'm trying to  _stop_  the invaders!" Jack shouted, as they finally succeeded in dragging him from the space ship.  "And if you don't let me — it's gonna be the biggest slaughter you've ever seen.  Something bad enough to make the history books."

Commander Yxpress ignored him.

Instead, turned to some other Weather Patrollers.  "Get in there and find out what he transmitted.  This is war — and if we can find where he's transmitting, we'll be able to locate and blast that hostile ship out of the sky."

Jack stopped struggling.

As he realized what this meant.

"Hostile ship," Jack repeated.  Oh, it would explain why this place was so deserted!  "They're already here.  It's already started."

"I can't see anything," said the techie, who'd gotten back into the ship.  "No transmissions coming from here, at all."

"That's because your instruments don't pick up this kind of transmission!" Jack shouted.  "Look, you took a hard-core, shoot-em-up army guy — cut off his thumb, kidnapped his girlfriend, and told him he'd never see her again.  You think he's just summoned just  _one_  alien ship here, to take you down?"

They all looked over at Jack.

Taking note of his words for the first time.

"I learned about this moment in history," Jack said.  "Everyone has.  And if this massacre is anywhere near as big as history says, then it must mean that every chevauchée group in the galaxy is gonna show up here to wipe you out."

A Weather Patroller burst in through the door.  "It's true," said the Weather Patroller.  "The mammal, Dave — he's just confessed the truth to us.  The ship in our atmosphere is a military vessel from his home planet, and there are others coming.  His people have arrived to free the mammals!"

"To free the…?" Jack shook his head.  "That idiot!"

"In which case, why would  _this_  mammal," Commander Yxpress gestured at Jack, "be trying to stop the signal bringing them here?"

"Because these aren't people fighting for the sake of the human race," Jack snapped.  "Or even fighting for money.  They're chevauchéers.  They fight for plunder — and if Dave's attracted as many as he thinks, it's because he inadvertently told them about something on this world that's valuable enough to make them want to plunder it."

This made all the lizards in the room hesitate.

"But… from the race that could create something like this…" the techie gestured at the space ship.  "We don't have anything they could want."

"Guess again," came a voice from behind them.

They turned, but not fast enough.

As a group of humans in ragtag military uniforms, armed with sophisticated weaponry, all opened fire on the lizards.


	24. Chapter 24

The Weather Patrollers scrambled to take cover or shoot back — but they'd been caught unprepared. Hadn't even seen the ship land — high powered cloaking device, Jack figured. And whatever high-powered guns the Weather Patrollers had, down here, they were only pieced-together from bits of alien technology, using guesses as to how it worked.

Didn't compare to the real thing.

It took five minutes for the chevauchéers to kill everyone in the room.

Jack took advantage of the chaos, and raced to the space ship. Began, more frantically than before, trying to find and disable the device. There. There! Jack smacked the panel on its side, and it lit up. Giving him an abort menu.

"Abort," Jack said, tapping on it.

The transmission shut off.

As the ship's doors opened, and the chevauchéers poured inside and grabbed Jack away from the controls. One shoved a blast-gun to Jack's head, but was halted by the leader — a man with a scraggly beard and a scar running down one cheek.

"No, not him," said the leader. "If he can speak, he could be our man." He strode over to Jack. "Call me Crayvor. Don't know how long you've been scrabbling around 'exploring', but… it sure paid off. We're the biggest chevauchée group this side of Beetlejuice, and we'd like to offer you a job."

"A… job?" said Jack, trying to figure out what was going on.

"I was trying to explain it to you," came Dave's voice, as he emerged into the ship — now clothed in chevauchée uniform and accompanied by a female chevauchéer. He grabbed up a hypodermic from the med-kit on the ship's wall, and injected it into his arm. Suddenly looked a lot better. " _This_  is how you get yourself in with another chevauchée group. You go out exploring. Report on art and culture and boring crap like that. Eventually you get the interest of a chevauchée group. They follow your signal." He shrugged. "And you get a new job."

" _This_  is Dave," said the chevauchéer woman who'd brought him to the ship. "The other's just someone who's been… helping him."

Jack's eyes narrowed on Dave. "So that's the answer, huh?" he said. "You sold us out to get yourself a job?"

"I sold out no one," Dave countered. "I knew, as soon as I arrived on a world with enslaved humans, that every chevauchée group out there would be heading to this planet, soon as possible, to liberate them. And you can see…!"

The whole group burst out laughing, around them.

As one of the chevauchéers slid behind the controls of Dave's ship, double checking the transmissions.

"Transmission already disabled," said the chevauchéer. Turned around. "We got here first. That means… this one's all ours, guys."

Whooping from the rest of the chevauchéers.

"So come on, D-man," said Crayvor. "Where's this girl you were telling us about, on the transmission?"

Dave opened his mouth.

But Jack got in, first. "Don't tell them," he warned.

"The Weather Patrollers took her," said Dave, ignoring Jack. "At a guess, she'll be at their global headquarters. I've got some coordinates stored on—"

Jack shoved open the glove compartment, grabbed out the gun Dave had hidden there. And pointed it straight at Dave.

"Don't," Jack warned.

Every chevauchéer there turned their own guns on Jack.

"I promised to look after her," said Jack, not minding the other guns at all. Eyes fixed on Dave. "That means… if you give her away, I'll shoot."

"I'm rescuing her," said Dave. "She's the reason they're here."

"Oh, yeah, I'm sure she is," said Jack. Eyes flicking across the rest of the chevauchéers. "But not the way you think."

Dave blinked at him.

And Jack sighed. "You still don't get it? Seriously? I mean, I know they say love makes you an idiot, but…"

Crayvor, irritated, pulled the trigger.

And sent a lethal energy blast through Jack's heart.

"Forget him," said Crayvor, turning back to Dave, as Jack's dead body slumped to the ground. "Just tell us where we can find the girl."

Dave hesitated.

Suddenly suspicious.

"Jack was our ally," said Dave, eyes still fixed on Jack's body. "He could have helped us."

Crayvor shook his head. "Just a con-man," he said. "Heard about this particular one, too. If he's here, it's because he wants the wealth all for himself."

"Wealth," Dave repeated.

Crayvor looked Dave up and down. "You're the kind who's only ever been in those small, self-righteous chevauchée groups, aren't you?" Turned back to the controls of Dave's ship. "Now. You said the coordinates were stored somewhere. I'm guessing they're here."

Dave's eyes were fixed on Jack.

Those words repeating in his head…  _I'm sure she is. But not in the way you think._

And Seo's own words…

_What happens when you find out how valuable I really am?_

"You're not here to free anyone," said Dave. Stepping towards Jack's dead body. "You don't care if humans are enslaved here or not. You're here for  _her_."

"Any other reason we'd show up?" asked Crayvor, trying to activate the monitors so he could access the memory banks and get those coordinates. "That's how all the big chevauchée groups work. Get used to it."

Dave lunged forwards, grabbing the gun out of Jack's dead hands, and pointing it straight at Crayvor.

Crayvor glanced back.

And laughed.

"See sense, D," said Crayvor. "You may think you love her, now… but you ever checked out her worth on the open market?" He grinned. "Sell her off, and you'll have enough money to get any woman you want. And a star system, new ship, new mansion, custom planet — you name it — thrown in."

"She's worth more than any of that," Dave said.

"You think?" Crayvor reached down to his belt, grabbed up a small, glass vial with a shimmering substance inside. "Got this using the revenue from plundering some ice planet, a few parsecs from here. Elixir of life — drop of this every morning, and you live forever. Share it with my chevauchéers… and we all live forever." His eyebrows raised. "Tell me you wouldn't sell out your own mother to get something like that!"

The other chevauchéers all seemed to be in agreement.

Dave's eyes narrowed.

"Trust me, D," said Crayvor, dropping the vial to his belt and returning to the controls. "There are some things girls can't get you. But money always can."

Dave didn't drop the gun.

The chevauchéer who'd led Dave into the ship charged up her own gun, pointing it at Dave's head. "Try anything," she warned, "and you'll be as dead as your friend, over there."

"I don't think that's necessary, Lin," said Crayvor, his face grew that much smugger, as he gestured at Dave. "Look at him. He can't even hold the gun straight."

And Dave knew he couldn't.

Nor would he ever be able to aim it.

Everything was off, without his right thumb. He was just as helpless and defenseless as he'd been when he was a kid, his whole family killed by aliens.

"But if he won't tell us where the coordinates are…" Lin started.

"Then we'll still find her," said Crayvor, giving up at the ship controls. "Weather Patroller Global Headquarters, he said." He tapped something into a small gadget he had, attached to his belt. "Just sent it off to the rest of the team, around the planet. We'll find her."

"Rest of the team?" said Dave, looking around himself.

He'd seen maybe ten chevauchéers, so far.

Biggest group he'd ever been in.

"Fifty of us, in total," said Crayvor. "Trust me, wherever this girl of yours is, we'll find her. And if she's as smitten with you as you are with her, the moment she learns we've got you with us… I'm guessing she'll come quietly."

"Either you join us, or you become our hostage," Lin agreed. "Up to you."

Dave stared at Crayvor.

Suddenly realizing… something he'd never thought of before.

"Fifty of you," Dave said. "All across the world. All across…  _this_  world."

Crayvor shrugged. "That's what I said. Why? You think you can…?"

The sounds of screams echoed from outside.

As Dave's eyes fixed on Jack.

"He was right," said Dave. "I've been extremely stupid."

As he realized… he'd just started a massacre of epic proportions.

And Seo would never —  _ever_  — forgive him for that.


	25. Chapter 25

"Sunshine!"

Seo spun around, spotting the trio running forwards in the corridor. Had to rub her eyes, to make sure she was seeing things right.

"It's all right, we sent the guards in the east wing off chasing shadows," said Jimmenila.

Seo felt herself grabbed up from behind by Callea.

"We're here to rescue you," said Pwouia. "And bring you home to your owner."

Seo shoved Callea away. "Oh, that's all I need," she muttered, as she grabbed one of the panels away from the wall, and began fiddling with wires. "Three more people to rescue from certain death."

The trio fell silent.

"It's true," said Callea. Staring at Seo. "Madgella said you spoke, but… actually  _hearing_  it…"

Seo sighed.

Figured she should have expected this.

"And everything else — is that true, too?" Jimmenila asked. "Did you really murder Madgel? Did you really pretend you couldn't talk to trick Madgella into giving you access to top secret information? Have you really been emotionally manipulating her this whole time?"

"To answer your questions in order," said Seo: "No. No. Yes. And it's not exactly emotional manipulation; she was being driven insane by lingering psychic elements in the house. I used some small scale telepathy to help."

The trio didn't know what to say to this.

"Oh, just… stay there," Seo instructed them, talking slowly enough that even these three snobs couldn't fail to understand. "I'll get us out of this."

She made an adjustment to the wiring.

And slammed down an emergency bulkhead, the whole panel fusing together.

"That'll take them some time to figure out," said Seo. She gestured for the others to follow her. "Follow me."

"But… but… you just blocked us from the exit!" said Jimmenila. She pointed behind the bulkhead. "We can't get out."

"I told you she was an idiot," said Pwouia. "Alien or not, she still has the intelligence level of a pet."

Seo clenched her hands into fists.

"Considering those pets are actually brilliant human beings," Seo gritted, through her teeth, "I'm taking that as a compliment." She spun on her heels. "Now follow me. There'll be…"

The sounds of footsteps, sprinting towards them.

And given there was no shouting or orders that accompanied it, Seo was guessing these were humans under lizard control. She'd seen them wandering around this complex.

She turned to the other three, behind her. Shoved her hands behind her head. "They'll be looking for lizards to give them orders. I'm thinking… prisoner and escort routine."

They all gave her blank stares.

Seo sighed. "Just act like rich snobs and yell at them a lot!" she said. "That shouldn't be too difficult for you three."

Callea stepped back, swishing her tail, clearly affronted.

"I liked her better when she didn't talk," Jimmenila said.

Then the humans showed up.

Stopping, just in front of Seo and the three lizard snobs. They were all carrying scalpels and other improvised knives. And were looking at Seo and the others with… an odd look on their faces.

Not the blank stares Seo had expected.

"Get away from us this instant," Callea demanded. "Do you have any idea who I am? I could grind you all underfoot, if I—"

"Wait," Seo interrupted, holding up a hand. She stepped forwards, cautiously. "Something's wrong."

The trio all looked at one another.

"We're following orders from a mammal, now?" Pwouia asked. Disgust rising from her. "A pet?!"

Seo ignored her.

Stepping slowly towards the humans, who were just stopped, in front of her. She tried to reach out to access their minds, the way Dave had done back at Vedhor — but they were sealed to her.

Whatever she'd done, back when she'd saved those children… it had been lost over the generations.

"Who's controlling you?" Seo asked them, softly. "Not the lizards — you respond to their emotions, but you don't feel those emotions yourselves. Not like this. And neither Dave nor Jack would have enough range to affect humans way out here."

She took another step closer.

And they sprang at her.

All at once. Trying to wrestle her to the ground and drag her off with them — like she was the most important thing to them, and anything else could go to hell.

"Stop!" shouted Pwouia, barging towards them and trying to grab Seo back. "You can't have Sunshine. She's Madgella's!"

"Pwouia, don't…!" Seo shouted, in frustration.

Too late.

The second she lay one hand on Seo, the humans turned on her. Lunging for her with their knives — and Seo just barely had time to catch the fastest one by the ankle and trip him, before he actually managed to strike Pwouia.

Pwouia scuttled away, towards the far bulkhead.

The human who'd fallen dropped his knife, and Callea scrabbled to pick it up. As the second human came charging forwards, Callea stabbed him in the gut.

As Seo managed to twist the others out of the way, slamming them into one another and hurtling them into a closet.

"What did you do that for?" Seo demanded. She shoved the closet door shut, locked it, then snatched the knife from Callea. Holding it up against the lizard's throat. "You want to know how it feels to have someone cut you down to size like you're a rabid animal?" Her eyes shifted to Jimmenila. "Want to know how it feels to have people badmouth you — to your face — every second of the day?" Her eyes shifted to Pwouia. "Want to know how it feels to have someone pour rubbish all over you?"

None of them said a word.

Seo threw the knife away.

Metal clattering against the floor.

"Neither do I," Seo said. "Remember that." Turned around, and headed off. "Now let's go find Oliver and work out what's going on!"

Seo had, naturally, assumed it'd be a lot harder to get to her ship.

She figured, at the very least, it would be guarded.

But whatever had gotten into those humans had affected all the others, too. She could hear screams from all over the complex, along with breaking windows and smashed lights and gunfire.

A part of her wanted nothing more than to drop everything and run out to help the screaming people. Maybe get to the bottom of this mystery, using the technology here, and fix everything.

But the rest of her knew that even though  _she_  had escaped,  _Dave_  was still in danger.

She had to get back to him, first.

 _Then_ , she could put a stop to whatever was happening, here.

"The pets," said Callea, as they passed an open door, "they're… looting the place!"

Seo dragged her away.

And shushed her.

"But this is appalling," Callea insisted. "I knew there were a few rejects who needed a trip to Vedhor to get them straightened out, but I had no idea so many…"

"Vedhor is what made them like this!" Seo hissed, grabbing her by the wrist and dragging her out of the way. "Any human pet who's been to Vedhor has the potential to flip out like this, at any time. Pick up on a random thought from a passing stray, and become an insane psychopath. Because of what  _you_  did to them at Vedhor, cutting up their brains so they can't actually choose their own actions, anymore!" She glared at them. " _That's_  what happened to Madgella's husband. And he's not the only one."

The air grew frosty, with the stunned psychic emission from the three lizard women.

"No," said Pwouia. "We would have heard…"

"You would have, if the Weather Patrollers hadn't been hushing it all up," said Seo. She held up a finger, silent a moment as her face bent in concentration, then nodded and changed direction — towards her ship. "That's why they needed me. Blame it on an alien, and everyone thinks it's a freak occurrence that doesn't usually happen. Not a ticking time bomb, just waiting to explode."

She forced open a door.

And smiled.

"There he is!" Seo said, heading towards Oliver. "Aw, and he's turned brown to try to match the color of the walls, here." She stroked the side of his exterior. "I'm pretty sure you're supposed to change both shape  _and_  color, Oliver. Not just one or the other."

"I knew we shouldn't have followed her," said Pwouia. Gesturing at the part-operating-table, part-tree, part-fence that Seo was addressing. "She's talking to that… thing. Like it's alive."

"My ship  _is_  alive," Seo replied. Opening him up, and stepping inside. "Now get in, if you want a rescue."

They weren't going to obey, thinking Seo obviously deranged.

But then came a series of gunshots, and a cluster of humans showed up, all armed to the teeth, with greed and murder shining in their eyes.

"Do as she says!" Jimmenila said.

As the three raced inside the ship.

And stopped, the moment they stepped into it.

Looking around themselves.

"No," said Callea. She spun around, looking up at the endless stories overhead, fading away into infinity. "This… isn't possible. It's an illusion!"

Seo was already by the central console, poking and prodding at things.

The doors snapped shut, behind them.

Jimmenila walked around the ship. Trying to find the concealed mirrors… but finding none. "It's real," Jimmenila said. "It's… all real."

"It can't be," said Pwouia. "You saw it, outside. It was tiny. We had to duck just to enter through the door!"

The engines roared, as the ship was thrown into motion. Sending all the lizard woman crashing to the floor.

"Dimensional transcendentalism," Seo explained, as she steered the ship back towards Dave and Jack. "Quite tricky to accomplish, actually." She adjusted a dial. "Then again, if you three had your way, I'd be mopping floors instead of building impossible spaceships that double as time machines."

"Time… machine?" said Jimmenila. Climbing back to her feet. "Did she say time machine?"

Seo looked up at the three.

With a small, proud grin.

Then returned to her work.

As the three lizard women got to their feet. And huddled together, in a corner, hoping Seo couldn't hear. As they conferred, trying to figure out… just how much of this could possibly be real.

Seo let them.

Didn't mind.

"But if she knows how to do all of this stuff," Jimmenila said, a little louder than the others, "then… that doesn't just make her smarter than your average pet. That'd make her smarter than even our own people. The smartest person in the whole world, come to that."

"Glad you finally noticed," Seo returned. Homing in for a landing.

They went back to conferring with one another, as Seo pulled the final lever. And Oliver landed — right beside Jack.

It was always easiest to home in on Jack.

He stuck out from any timestream like a sore thumb.

"Listen, Sunshine," said Pwouia, stepping forwards.

"Seo," Seo corrected, heading towards the door.

"Seo," Pwouia said. "We… are… sorry." She looked around at the others, who all nodded their approval. "Yes. We're sorry. We… didn't know."

Seo paused by the door.

Quirked an eyebrow at them.

"Only because you didn't care enough to look," she countered. Opened the door. "Maybe you should think about that, with your own pets."

And left.

* * *

Seo raced over to Jack, inside Dave's ship, grabbing up his fallen body. "Jack! Come on, resurrect! What's happened?"

Jack, as if on cue, gasped back to life.

Nearly making her topple backwards.

"Seo!" Jack cried. Grabbed her up into a tight hug. "Thought I'd lost you."

Seo returned the hug, hurriedly.

As Madgella's three friends poured out of Oliver, trying to reorient themselves to the fact that they'd just moved… and the fact that they were home, and there was screaming all around them.

"What…? But that screaming can't be…!" Callea began.

"This is also a space ship!" said Jimmenila, as they all climbed into Dave's ship, after Seo.

Seo helped Jack to his feet. "Where's Dave?"

Jack sighed. "Last I checked? Destroying the world to prove he loved you."

"What?!" Horror sunk in, as Seo figured it all out. "Oh, no." The greed. The destruction. The looting. It all made sense. "He didn't!"

"Destroy the world?" said Jimmenila. "I don't understand."

"The chevauchéers," said Seo, to them. "He's called in the chevauchéers. A bunch of greedy humans, infecting your planet's telepathic field."

"Oh, you don't know the half of it," said Jack, following Seo as she dashed out of Dave's ship — the others close behind them. "There are other chevauchée groups coming, too. From all over this galactic sector. And guess what, on this planet, could be valuable enough to get lots of chevauchéers to drop everything and come all this way out to plunder an unknown and possibly dangerous planet?"

Seo stopped in her tracks.

Pivoted back to face Jack.

"Tell me you're joking," she said.

"First thing they wanted Dave to tell them," said Jack. "Where you were."

Seo swore beneath her breath.

Spun back around, and headed towards the exit.

"What?" said Pwouia, looking between Jack and Seo. "Are either of you mammals going to explain what's going on?"

Seo glanced over her shoulder. "You three," she said. "Go find Madgella. Make sure she's all right, and keep her out of trouble until I can sort something out." She snapped her head back to the door, fury overtaking her. "And as for Dave… I'm gonna make him wish he'd never been born!"

"If it helps, he thought the chevauchéers were here to rescue you," said Jack, rushing after her. "I'm guessing when he found out they weren't, they probably took him captive to make you come quietly."

"So his idea of a plan to rescue me was to grab an army and start shooting? No, that doesn't help. Not at all." Seo gritted her teeth, as she forced open the bunker door. "That weapon-toting military idiot! Calling in the chevauchéers to prove his love! When I'm done saving his life and everyone on this planet… I'm  _so_ gonna  _kill him_!" She threw herself outside. "How's that to prove  _my_  love?"

She rushed out the door. Madgella's friends racing after her, heading off into the chaos to find Madgella.

Jack lingered a moment, and shook his head.

"Why kids these days can't prove their love by having wild, passionate sex," he said, "I just don't know."


	26. Chapter 26

Madgella had curled up, in her house. Tail wrapped tightly around her body.

As she lay on her rock, in her bedroom. Unable to sleep.

Her whole body numb, and her mind not wanting to deal with anything.

A noise.

Like mammalian footsteps.

"Sunshine?" Madgella asked, poking up her head at the noise.

Except it wasn't Sunshine.

It was Grassdew, advancing towards Madgella with a kitchen knife, an unfamiliar expression on his face. He raised up the knife above his head — then sprung towards her.

Madgella's panic froze in the air.

BANG!

Before Grassdew had made it even half way to her rock, three figures had raced into the room, one holding a plank of wood — which she'd just slammed across Grassdew's head.

Grassdew dropped to the ground.

And Madgella discovered her three friends had returned.

"I… I thought… Sunshine had come back to—" Madgella said, crawling off her rock and peering at Grassdew.

"Sunshine's fine," said Pwouia.

At the same time as Jimmenila said, "Sunshine's an alien who can build impossible space ships."

And Callea said, "Sunshine's off trying to stop this madness."

Madgella tried to reconcile all the words in her head, but they just made everything spin even more than it had before. She couldn't tell what was real and what was just a dream — or had the entire time since her husband's death just been one long, unending nightmare she couldn't wake up from?

"Sunshine… builds…?" Madgella's tail twitched, in agitation. "I… I don't…"

Pwouia, Callea, and Jimmenila all looked at one another.

Not sure what to say.

Then launched into a rapid and insane story about their going to rescue Sunshine — and discovering that Sunshine  _could_ , indeed, talk. And was a hyper-intelligent alien being who had brought the three of them back here in her time machine — which could change shape, color, and texture — and was bigger inside than outside.

Madgella stopped trying to follow their story, as she latched onto the most important point.

"Sunshine's here?" Madgella said. She raced out the door, and towards the front door of her house. "She could be in trouble! We have to save her!"

"Madgella, stop!" said Jimmenila, chasing after her.

"I think  _Sunshine's_  trying to save  _us_ ," Callea agreed. "She wants you out of the way."

Pwouia reached out and grabbed Madgella by the arm.

But Madgella punched and clawed and hit, eventually shoving Pwouia back.

"You don't understand," said Madgella, turning and racing out her front door. "Sunshine saved my life. Whatever she's done, whatever she is, whatever she's to blame for or not to blame for — I don't care. I have to save her. The same way she saved me!"

The three friends tried to race out to drag her back.

But Madgella was already gone.

* * *

Dave hissed through his teeth, as the pain continued to throb from his mutilated hand.

But he had bigger things to worry about.

"Communications hijacker," Lin said, stepping back from her work. "Build enough of these, and it gets almost as easy as printing a pair of shoes."

Dave struggled.

And the guy restraining him pressed down, harder, on the spot where his thumb used to be.

This time, he couldn't stop himself crying out. "You bastards!"

"Hey, we're not the goons who cut off your thumb in the first place," said Crayvor. He tested the microphone, and grinned as he heard it playing out on the local radio. "All right, you lizard freaks," he broadcast. "Here's how this is gonna work. We're a heavily armed military force from another planet. That means we've got enough guns and alien tech to blow this whole planet into rubble, if we choose."

Snickers from the other chevauchéers, amused by his bluff.

"So either you hand over that Seo girl," Crayvor continued, "or—"

"I'm here," came a voice to their right.

They turned their heads, to find a petite blond girl with sharp brown eyes standing on the top of a bunch of crates. She flipped through the air, landing right in front of them.

And raised up her hands over her head, to show she was unarmed.

Every chevauchéer nearby pointed their guns at her anyways — just to be prepared.

"You've got me," said Seo, her voice very low and bristling with anger. "Now, for the love of god —  _get off this planet_!"

The chevauchéers all exchanged looks.

Not believing it for a second.

"That's it?" said one of them. "No conditions? No tricks? No trying to escape?"

"And what about Romeo, here?" said Crayvor, grabbing him from the other chevauchéer and restraining him with one hand, while holding a gun under his chin with the other. "Not even gonna bargain for  _his_  life?"

Seo stepped forwards. Her face even angrier. "I said," she answered, "get off this planet! Now!"

Dave struggled, a little more — mostly for show. He had to get himself moved into just the right position, so he could grab the gun and turn it on the bastards threatening Seo. Just a little bit further… to the right…

"Dave!" Seo hissed, furious.

Dave froze.

Her glare told him that she'd already worked out his plan.

And didn't like it.

The chevauchéers took one look at Dave, now frozen with a single word from Seo, and howled with laughter.

"Completely whipped!" one cracked up.

"Wuss," said another.

Dave only just stopped himself from taking the provocation. He could see, in Seo's eyes, that she had a plan — and would never forgive him if he messed it up just because some chevauchéers had called him names.

Then again, given what he'd started on this planet, he wasn't sure she'd forgive him, anyways.

"Come on," said Crayvor. "What's to stop us killing Romeo, just like we killed that other one — what was his name?"

"Jack," Dave muttered. He couldn't meet Seo's eyes. Knowing how she'd take the news. "I tried to stop them."

Oddly, though — the news didn't seem to upset Seo.

Or even make her pause.

"Two things," Seo replied, to Crayvor. "First — you won't kill Dave, because you need him for leverage over me." She quirked an eyebrow. "And, second — because there's a revolver aimed right at your head."

Crayvor blinked.

Then spun around, to discover Jack Harkness standing on a cluster of crates behind them, a twentieth century revolver in his hands.

"Hand him over," Jack said, "and no one gets hurt."

Crayvor's jaw dropped.

So did everyone else's — as they saw the man who'd been stone dead, a short time ago, now alive and breathing.

"Laser proof vest," Lin muttered. "Has to be."

Dave saw his advantage, as Crayvor's grip slackened just a hair.

He pivoted around, smacking Crayvor in the jaw and shoving him back. Crayvor stumbled, reaching out to regain his balance…

Dave grabbed his arm, twisting it around, trying to get the gun.

The tussle sent everyone else around them into action — some shooting at Jack, some at Dave, some at Seo.

She dove forwards, striking at those around Dave. One grabbed her by her arm, to tug her away — but she gripped the man by the wrist and threw him over her shoulder. Then spun around and kicked out at another, who was trying to sneak up from behind.

Just barely managing to dodge a shot from a high-powered gun.

As it seared past her cheek.

"Stop, or we kill your lover," one of the chevauchéers said, aiming directly at Dave. "We weren't kidd—"

Dave ducked down, then used his left hand to punch the chevauchéer hard in the jaw. "You can try," he said. Giving a punch in the stomach with his right hand, and only remembering the pain it'd cause himself after the guy was doubled up.

Seo ducked another shot to her head, and kicked at a chevauchéer to her right.

As Dave, gritting his teeth and sucking up the pain, grabbed the gun from the chevauchéer he'd struck, and… unable to aim it… resorted to bashing the chevauchéer over the back of the head with its butt.

Jack, meanwhile, was already advancing on Dave from the other side.

And it wouldn't be long before Seo and Jack managed to get to him and grab him out of this mess.

"Sunshine!"

Seo stopped reaching for Dave, as she turned towards the voice.

There, racing forwards towards the skirmish, armed only with a large wooden plank — was Madgella.

Her clothes torn and her tail dirty, but her emotions swirling around her with desperation and courage, as she tried to whack her way through to rescue Seo.

"Madgella, get back!" Seo shouted, seeing a group of possessed human pets already advancing on her from behind.

Madgella's friends raced after her, armed with their own makeshift weapons, trying to clobber as many human pets as they could, to protect Madgella. But the emotions of the scuffle Seo, Dave, and Jack were fighting was full of unfocused aggression, and the pets were picking it up on that as if it were their own.

There'd be no controlling them. And no stopping them.

Lin, from the perimeter of the fight, noticed Seo's reaction to Madgella. She pivoted on her feet, and with one expert shot, hit Jimmenila in the heart. Jimmenila's pain punctured the air, as she fell against the ground.

Then Lin turned the gun on Madgella, blasting the wooden board in Madgella's hands to pieces, and halting the lizard in her tracks.

"That's right, you know what this can do, now," Lin told Madgella. "So just keep still, and I won't have to use it on you."

"You… you killed Jimmenila!" said Madgella. "You—!"

Lin ignored her.

Instead calling out, across the skirmish — "Surrender, Weapon. Or your lizard friend gets roasted."

Madgella tried to surge forwards, but Lin shot directly in front of Madgella.

Who stumbled to a halt.

Terrified.

Seo, her eyes fixed on Madgella, dropped her fists. "Jack," she said, "Dave." Shook her head, as she raised her hands up in surrender. "Give up. It's over."


	27. Chapter 27

The skirmish died away.

As Dave and Jack, finally registering what was going on, hesitated. And were jumped on by chevauchéers, in all directions. Restraining them.

And the human pets, no longer feeling that unfocused aggression, got back to their looting and ransacking.

Seo, meanwhile, didn't resist or struggle as the chevauchéers grabbed hold of her arms, roughly. Twisting them around behind her back, and frog-marching her towards Crayvor. Who surveyed her like she was already his — a sneer on his lips.

"Thank you, Lin," Crayvor said. He reached out, and took her chin between two fingers. "Pretty for a Weapon, isn't she?"

Dave roared, struggling to escape from his captors and defend her.

But they pressed down on the place where his thumb used to be, and the pain crippled him.

"Leave her alone!" Madgella said. "My Sunshine's done nothing to—"

Lin struck Madgella in the stomach with the butt of her gun, knocking the wind out of her.

Madgella's friends were still clustered around Jimmenila, trying to see if there was anything they could do.

"Hurt Madgella, again, and I'll destroy you all," Seo said, quietly. Her eyes blazing as they met Crayvor. "See if I don't."

"You think I wouldn't see through a bluff like that?" said Crayvor. He shook his head. "I've seen your disapproving glares towards Romeo. You might be a 'Weapon', but you hate violence. The only way to get you to actually destroy things… is by threatening someone you care about." He gestured at Lin, to bring Madgella forwards. "Someone who can't fight back."

Seo's lips went into a very thin line.

"Maybe we should take this lizard with us," Crayvor proposed. "Sell you both as a package. The super-weapon who can destroy worlds — and her pet lizard, whom you can threaten to make her obey."

"…pet?" Madgella gasped, trying to regain her balance.

"There's an idea," said the chevauchéer restraining Dave. "Take a few of these lizards off-world, soften them up a bit… give 'em a lobotomy or two… and I bet they'd make great pets."

Seo's eyes went dark.

"We are not pets!" Madgella insisted. "We're people! You can't treat us like—!"

Lin slammed her with the butt of her gun, again.

"Stop it!" Seo shouted, bursting free from them to race over to Madgella. "Don't you dare…!"

Lin charged up her gun, aiming it back towards Madgella's head.

Seo slowed.

Stopped.

Then backed away, letting the chevauchéers restrain her, yet again.

"Leave Madgella alone," said Seo, as she was roughly forced to her knees, on the ground. "And I'll give you something a better way to control me. A chevauchéer, on your side, from the Pachoran Slave Cluster."

Dave's jaw dropped.

As he heard Seo reveal his little secret to everyone, all at once.

"I fell in love with Dave when he landed here," Seo told the chevauchéers around her. "Of course, he didn't care about me at all. So I used my telepathic abilities to manipulate his mind, and make him love me back."

"Seo, what…?!" Dave shouted.

Seo shushed him with a look.

And continued.

"Truth is… he's still a bloodthirsty killing machine," Seo explained. "Who's ready and willing to plunder the universe. I've just made him forget all of that." She gave a long, drawn out sigh. "I'll release my control on his mind, if you let Madgella and the other lizards go."

"And what's to make you follow orders, then?" Crayvor asked, eyes flicking between Seo and Dave.

"I still love him," Seo replied. That beautiful burst of light back in her eyes, as she looked back at Dave through those long, perfectly curled lashes.

A slight blush on her cheeks.

"I always will," said Seo. "No matter what happens."

Crayvor considered this.

Weighing whether or not he thought it might be true.

"Let me get to him," Seo urged, "and I'll release the hold on his mind. Then… none of you will ever need to bluff, again. If the natives don't give you what you want… Dave will make me destroy them. And I'll do it because… I love him."

Crayvor thought.

Then nodded at the chevauchéer restraining Dave. "Keep him covered, but let him get to her." He glanced back at the chevauchéers behind him. "The rest of you… make sure you keep the con-man and the lizard under control. Just in case she needs to be taught a lesson."

Dave felt himself thrown forwards, at Seo.

Who caught him, as the chevauchéers restraining her let her go.

"I won't let those—!" Dave gritted through his teeth.

She shushed him, softly. Looking deep into his eyes, as she ran her hands over the top of his head, her touch making him tingle.

"They'd raze this whole planet to the ground, before letting me go," Seo whispered to him. "There's nothing chevauchéers want more than plunder. I have to give it to them."

She leaned in, and kissed him.

Soft, and lovely, in his arms.

How could he ever doubt her? How could he think she didn't have some kind of plan?

Then she pulled away, her hands against his temples, her eyes closed. As he felt her suddenly inside his mind, flipping through thoughts and emotions as easily as she'd sorted through Madgella's mail, back when she'd been a slave.

And when she stepped away, he felt a sudden cold anger surge through him… directed towards Seo, herself.

Like… she  _had_  messed with his head.

And everything she'd said was true.

He shoved her away from him.

And struck her, full on the face.

"You brain-manipulating alien!" Dave hissed. Kicking her onto the ground. "You twisted…!"

She looked up at him from the ground.

The hints of tears in her eyes.

And all that coldness towards her began to melt, as his real feelings came through. No! What was he doing? How could he have hurt… or even  _thought_  of hurting…?!

What had she done to his mind?!

"Looks like he  _is_  a bloodthirsty killer, after all," Crayvor said. Stepping towards Dave, hand on his shoulder. "Should have seen it, earlier. No chevauchéer would act so wussy and yellow-bellied."

"Yeah?" said Lin. "So how's this supposed to control her?"

Dave, swept up by a sudden impulse planted inside his mind — and not by him — just answered with a hard, "See for yourself."

Grabbed her by the collar, dragging her towards him.

As she looked up at him, through those beautiful eyes… her face still smarting from the blow he'd given her…

No!

She'd done something to his mind… implanted in orders to  _make_  him act like this! Used the nature of his psychic link to this planet against him! She was…!

He wondered… was this how it felt, for her, when she became just "the Weapon?" Hurting the people you loved and not being able to stop, because someone else was pulling your strings?

"Your friend Jack," Dave found himself saying, in an unfeeling, uncaring voice. "Kill him."

Seo's eyes went wide.

"No," she pleaded. "Don't make me…!"

"You said I had the power to turn you into a weapon!" Dave sneered, getting right into her face. He could feel her making him do it — so strange and alien, inside his mind. What the hell was she doing?! She wouldn't really kill Jack, would she?

Gotta be some kind of bluff with the laser proof vest. But… the chevauchéers wouldn't fall for that twice.

"I control you," Dave found himself saying. He pushed her towards Jack, and she stumbled. "Now do it, or I'll…"

But as she staggered in the direction he'd pushed her, Dave realized the sway she had over his mind was ebbing with distance.

Replaced by his real emotions and real love towards her.

"…just… do it," Dave put in, hurriedly.

"And no guns," Crayvor put in. Tossed Seo a ceremonial long-sword he'd plundered from some other planet. "Kill him dead this time, honey. Really dead."

Dave watched as she caught the sword. Glanced back at Dave.

"Really dead," Dave repeated, trying but failing to sound quite as cruel as he had, back when he'd been following what she'd been implanting into his head.

What had she said?

There was nothing the chevauchéers wanted more than plunder…

"Seo, please!" Jack was begging — and it sounded genuine. "Don't!"

Had the plan just gone to hell?

Seo passed by Crayvor, who turned to watch her, in front of Jack.

His back now to Dave.

Ah!

That was it! This was a distraction. Had to be — a way to get everyone else facing away from Dave, so he could do something before Seo killed Jack. His opportunity to save the day.

"I can't control it," Seo said, raising the sword over her head, preparing to swing it and decapitate her friend.

Crayvor watching with a sneer on his lips.

Dave eyed the nearest chevauchéer, watching Seo with interest. That's it — just shove the guy, grab his gun, then shoot Crayvor in the back of the head so he could run with Seo to…!

No.

Not Seo's style — and with no thumb, Dave couldn't shoot straight, anyways.

"Seo, get a grip!" Jack cried. "You're gonna kill me, here!"

"I have no choice," Seo said.

Which was when Dave suddenly realized… Seo had been wrong. She'd been guessing about the chevauchéers, saying there was nothing they valued above their plunder.

But Dave knew… there was one thing.

That'd make them drop every one of their goals. And save this planet from them and any other chevauchéers on their way to plunder and loot and kill.

Just as Seo began to swing the sword through the air, Dave lunged forwards and grabbed the precious vial of Immortality Liquid from his belt.

Then smashed it against the ground.

The smash accompanied by the thud of Jack's severed head, as it hit the ground. Body crashing down beside it.

None of the chevauchéers were looking at Seo and Jack, anymore, though. They'd all spun around, to face Dave. The guy who'd just wrecked their chance of living forever.

Utter fury and rage all directed towards him.

"Get him!" shouted Crayvor.

But that kind of focused fury and rage… that was all Dave needed.

He focused his mind, used every neuron at his disposal, and spread that out to the surrounding humans. Focusing the fury… squarely on…

The human pets came in droves, throwing themselves at the chevauchéers with a blind rage that caught all the chevauchéers off-guard. Every human for miles around, all with a clear and obvious goal in mind.

Get the chevauchéers.

Make them pay.

Dave lunged through the fight, grabbing Seo and pulling her away and out of the skirmish.

"What did you do?!" Seo cried, as they raced away, together.

Dave knocked a distracted Lin out of the way, and grabbed Madgella.

Leading her and her friends away from the fight.

"Jack's a fixed point in time, Dave!" Seo continued to shout. "He's going to be fine! I needed to get them all on their ship and heading away from here, with only me and you in tow. You'd have been able to break me out fine after that point, and—!"

"And when we got back here, the next group of chevauchéers would show up," said Dave. He turned her towards the bunker where his ship was located. "And the next. And the next. You might be able to jump into space and time and run away — but this planet can't. And if this is what one chevauchée group does, then after they've all come through, everyone here — both lizards and humans — would be dead several times over." He jumped over the busted-in bunker door. "But there  _is_  one thing chevauchéers care about more than plunder."

From behind them, they heard the angry voices of chevauchéers shouting, "Get after him!"

And heard gunfire.

"Revenge," said Dave.

Seo shook her head. "But…!"

Dave just kept running, all the way to his ship. "I hurt them, Seo. Turned on them and betrayed them. Chevauchéers don't turn on their own — it's one of the few rules we have. Moment Crayvor's group gets into space, they'll send out a signal, and get every other chevauchée group to start chasing after me, too. They'll hunt me to the ends of the universe… but you'll be safe. And so will this planet."

"I won't let…!" Seo cried.

Dave stopped, just outside his ship. Took her hands in his, looking into her eyes. "I get it, now," he told her. "I see it. They're just people. Like you. Like me! They don't deserve to die." He gripped her hands a little tighter. "I've screwed up enough, since I got here. Let me do this one thing."

Then, before she could stop him or even react, he let go.

And raced inside his ship.

"Seems like every time we meet, you destroy my career!" Dave shouted at her, with a laugh, just before the door to his ship sealed shut.

Madgella, still perplexed, trying to take all this in, stumbled beside Seo. "But… but what is he…?"

Seo realized she was there.

Heard the engines starting up.

"Get out of here," Seo demanded, grabbing Madgella and her friends and running back out of the bunker. "With the singe-suppressors offline, this whole place is gonna be incinerated the second he takes off. We've gotta give him a clear blast…!"

The ground beneath them shook, as Dave's ship blasted into the sky.

And the chevauchéers' ship soon followed, in rapid succession.

Seo threw herself and her friends clear of the blast site.

As the planet shook beneath them.

Looked up into the sky, as the two ships soared past the upper atmosphere. And disappeared from sight.

"Dave," Seo whispered. "Why did you…?!"

She was stopped by Madgella, who grabbed Seo with desperate, shaking hands.

"You're all right!" Madgella said. "I was so scared, I didn't know…!"

Seo tore her eyes away from the sky.

And dealt with the crisis on hand.

"I'm fine," Seo told Madgella. Helping her to her feet. "But after a planet-wide massacre like this, I think everyone's realized the humans can be dangerous. And if we don't act fast… they'll all be put to death."

Pwouia climbed to her feet, shakily.

Recovering her breath from the chase and the jump out of the way of the explosion.

"Pwoui Media owns most of the networks on this planet, right?" said Seo, rushing over to help support Pwouia. "I think it's time we took over the media. And told people the truth about facilities like Vedhor."


	28. Chapter 28

 

Jack, when he gasped back to life, had to admit he was impressed with just how much Seo had done in such a short time.

"It's not going to be easy, from here on out," Seo told him. "And there'll still be a lot of violence towards the humans, in retaliation for this. But Callea is using her connections to get the Weather Patrollers to use their advanced technology to protect the humans."

"And to shut down Vedhor and places like it once and for all," Callea added.

She and the others walked with a sort of pride Jack had never seen in them, before.

Like they had a purpose, now.

"Meanwhile, Madgella is rounding up all the humans she can find," Seo continued, "to bring them somewhere out east. Their own country, where they can be free." She shrugged. "The lobotomized ones will mimic the unlobotomized ones, and Madgella will help teach the humans who still have their brains intact to control their violent tendencies."

"Good start," Jack said, patting her on the back. "But it's still not happily ever after for this planet. There's gonna be a lot of residual anger between these groups for a long time, afterwards. And a lot of fighting."

Seo didn't answer.

Just bowed her head, staring down at the pavement.

"We've brought war to this peaceful little planet," said Jack. "Along with freedom."

"I know," Seo said. Her shoulders slumping. "If I'd been my parents… maybe I would have found a way to help these people that didn't result in chaos and bloodshed." She glanced back up at Jack. "But I'm not them. And I don't know what else I can do."

Jack gave her a reassuring smile.

Led her back to her ship, which had been dug out of the ashes and rubble left in the wake of Dave's ship.

"Nah, you did good, kid," Jack assured her. "It'll be a hard-won freedom, but it's still going to be freedom. Eventually… this planet will be at peace, again. And, thanks to you, these humans will be the equals of their lizard counterparts."

Seo didn't answer.

Just unlocked her ship, and went inside.

Eyes still fixed on the floor.

"Tell you what?" said Jack. "Why don't we skip ahead a few hundred years, into this planet's future? You can see how it all turns out."

"I don't want to," said Seo.

Her voice trembled, as she began to adjust dials and levers and switches. Focused, intently, on her ship, as it departed.

"Only one place I need to go," Seo said, struggling to direct her ship, as it flew through the vortex. "A space ship, about to be shot down by multiple chevauchée groups, while—!"

Oliver screeched, as he popped out of the vortex.

And Seo called up the image of the outside onto the scanner.

Which showed empty black space…

A planet…

And a single space ship, shot-up and on its last legs, pursued by a whole bunch of chevauchéer ships, all with their weapons blazing.

"Missed!" Seo muttered, turning back to the controls, and getting ready to try again. "Got to materialize right onboard his ship, or I'll never…!"

"Seo," Jack said, softly, a hand on her shoulder.

As the last missile smashed into Dave's space ship, and the thing was sent crashing down into the nearby planet's atmosphere, as it began to fall apart.

Seo stared.

Her jaw trembling.

"No," Seo said. "He can't be dead! He can't…!"

"He's not," Jack told her. Nodded at the scanner. "He's living history, Seo. These events, going on right now — they're what changes everything. Across the galaxy. Forever."

"I don't…!"

"Just listen, a sec," said Jack. "Because, trust me. After Dave crashes onto the planet Ervy Sentasi — he meets some people. And because of that meeting, on that planet… in the future, the human race'll beat everything from demons to Daleks. You see if we don't!"

* * *

Dave groaned, as he tried to crawl from the wreckage of his ship.

He'd saved himself by heading here. To  _this_  planet — Ervy Sentasi. Most dangerous planet in this sector of the galaxy.

Anyone lands here, best thing to do is leave them for dead.

Dave just hadn't expected them to smash up his space ship so he couldn't leave.

Dave sucked in a sharp breath, manning up and ignoring the pain. Time to survive. Find shelter. Get his hands on a gun, or something to defend himself with—

He couldn't stop himself crying out, as he jostled his right hand and hit the spot where his thumb had once been.

And his cry was met with a growl.

Dave looked up.

At the air, ripping apart just in front of him to reveal a crack in reality… and slobbering, savage monster emerging from the depths, stalking towards him. Its wings and body unlike anything Dave had ever seen before, as its ears extended forwards and wrapped themselves around Dave.

Dave struggled to lash out…

But he couldn't even breathe, much less fight.

Not in his condition.

The monster opened its mouth, as the ears dangled him over a massive array of teeth…

Then he was jerked away, and the creature gave a shrill howl.

"It's open, again!" came a shout from a human voice. "Shingolvo Demon, this time. Get the Sword of Quendy; that'll do the trick."

The creature dropped Dave, as it howled with pain, again.

And turned on its attackers.

Lashing out and striking at… but, no, the attackers couldn't really be…!

But they were.

A group of human women, not looking particularly muscular or soldier-like, rushing a creature twice their size, striking at it with swords and sticks and the occasional stray blaster.

Their every movement was swift, spritely, and infinitely precise.

Their punches and kicks impossibly strong.

As they managed to lead the creature away from Dave, and two women rushed forwards to help him to his feet.

"Human, from the look!" said one woman. "Chevauchéer uniform. Pretty roughed up. Nine fingers."

They helped support him, using a strength Dave had never seen from anyone… except Seo.

"What's a chevauchéer doing on Ervy Sentasi?" said the other woman. "I thought they were all pretty aware that this was Planet of the Hellmouths, and they should keep away."

"Chased…" Dave told them. "Was trying… to get them… leave me for dead…"

He was already feeling weaker and weaker by the minute, though.

"Geeze, Marissa, he's really in a bad way," said one of the women, catching him before he could fall. "We gotta get Dr. Sompters to look him over, or he'll never make it."

"…Summers?" Dave muttered.

Like Seo. Seo… Summers. And these people… could all do the things she could do, somehow…

"No, Sompters," said Marissa. "Dr. Joanne Sompters. Trust us, she's an expert in patching up Slayers from mortal injuries — I bet she'll find a normal human like you a piece of cake."

"Slayer," Dave repeated.

He'd… heard Jack say that. That Seo could fight well because… she had some Slayer in her…

"Don't tell me! You haven't heard of us," said Marissa, with a sigh. "Typical. No one ever has."

"Small, underfunded, underappreciated," said Marissa's friend, helping keep Dave on his feet. "And with no home base, anymore. But, trust us, we're the best friends you could ever want."

"In every generation, there are the chosen ones," Marissa added, with a grin, "who go around the galaxy, fighting off demons, hostile aliens, and the forces of darkness. The girls who stop misery and oppression and basically do all-around good deeds."

Dave squinted at them, even as he felt himself beginning to black out.

"Stopping… oppression," he repeated. "Slavery." Giving them a tired smile. "Finally found a group that cares."

Then blacked out, in their hands.


End file.
